


The Secret of Arxia

by 1Syphira



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Space, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Eventual Smut, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Smut, Happy Ending, Lesbians in Space, Outer Space, Pirates, Science Fiction, Smut, Space Pirates, Space Stations
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-03
Updated: 2020-06-27
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:00:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 29,711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24515776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1Syphira/pseuds/1Syphira
Summary: When the Republic of Etheria Protectors discover unusual activity in the violent pirate faction known as the Horde, Commander Mara sends Captain Adora on a dangerous mission to investigate. Along the way Adora has a chance encounter with Catra, a smuggler in the Horde, whom she hasn't seen in five years since she herself escaped the Horde. The encounter makes her realize she is still madly in love with Catra, but also puts her entire investigation at risk, as she is fraternizing with the enemy. As Adora goes deeper down the rabbit hole of discovering what the Horde is chasing after, she must risk everything she can to find the truth--even Catra's safety. Fairly AU, still takes place in space.
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Mermista/Sea Hawk (She-Ra), Perfuma/Scorpia (She-Ra)
Comments: 69
Kudos: 141





	1. R.E.P. Life

**Author's Note:**

> I have chosen to rename the Reps to "Republic of Etheria Protectors" due to the current climate in the U.S.A. This isn't a police story (if anything, "Reps" are modeled more closely to the Star Trek TNG universe), it was inspired by Treasure Planet and a Tumblr post I saw with Adora dressed as a cop and Catra as a sexy gang leader. I loved the idea of that dynamic of Catra and Adora, but with Catra as Adora's C.I. to help Adora beat the Horde to the treasure. And really, it's just an excuse to have hot lesbian sex, a little plot, and fluff. FLUFF I SAY. Love to you all and I hope a little fluffy lesbian smut helps give you a moment of respite in these crazy times. <3

Captain Adora of the Republic of Etheria Protector space ship _Lunarium_ sat in her captain’s chair feeling quite pleased with the day she was having. She was a relatively young captain, but the Republic of Etheria had been handing out captain promotions like candy of late in order to expand their fleet of ships to protect their territory and trade routes. Her ship, the _Lunarium_ , was a good 170 meters with a crew of 30 Republic of Etheria Protector Officers and non-officer crew of 10 (most of which comprised medical staff, a couple of engineers, and the ship’s cook).

That morning she woke up before her obnoxious alarm clock and turned it off before it screamed at her, had two cups of surprisingly good coffee, and didn’t get into an argument with her First Officer, Glimmer (something that happened with alarming regularity. Despite this though, they were close friends). It had been a quiet day at Bright Moon Space Station; they didn’t have any trouble on the shipping docks, she hadn’t received any complaints from citizens about Republic of Etheria Protector (or “Reps” as most people called them) protocols, and her engineer, Entrapta, hadn’t broken anything on the _Lunarium_ in order to “improve” it [yet].

Adora turned on the comms. “Entrapta, how’s the repair on the aft engine power cell going?”

A loud clanging noise came over the comm in response. “Fantastic!” the very overzealous voice of Entrapta bellowed into the comm. “Darla wasn’t sure at first that she wanted an upgrade, but I’ve convinced her it’s for the best.”

“Glad to hear it. Just don’t break anything, yeah?” Adora said.

She heard only a mad cackle before the comm went dead.

“I will never understand why my mom thought she would be the best option as an engineer on a _Protector_ ship,” Glimmer muttered, pinching the bridge of her nose between two fingers.

“Because despite the fact that she’s crackers, she really is the best engineer in the entire Rep Force. Possibly all of Etheria,” Adora said.

“Ah, come on Glimmer, she’s not so bad!” Bow said, spinning towards them from his pilot chair. “She’ll be your friend for life if you ask her if she wants to modify literally anything. I asked her to modify the charge cell in my gun and now I swear it shoots better than it ever has.”

“You had her modify a _Protector issue_ weapon?” Adora asked, giving him a look that clearly said, “Are you out of your damn mind, Bow?!”

“Uh. . . I mean I didn’t do that. What?” he said in an incredibly sad attempt to change the subject.

She was quite prepared to give him a full on tongue lashing when suddenly alarms all over the bridge started screeching.

“And my day was going so well,” Adora grumbled.

“Captain, we’re getting a distress call from a transport ship called _Elberon_ ,” Bow, said, his fingers flying over the controls. “Their communications have been knocked out, but not before they sent out an S.O.S.”

“Patch it through,” Adora said, sitting up in her captain’s chair.

_“This is Captain ----- with the_ Elberon _. We’re ----- attack-----the Horde. Requesting immediate aide!”_ The communication ended abruptly.

Adora heaved a deep sigh of annoyance. “Bloody pirates,” she grumbled. “Take us to the _Elberon,_ Bow,” she ordered.

“Aye, aye Cap,” he said.

As the _Lunarium_ jumped into hyperspace, Adora’s mind drifted with the passing stars. Surprisingly, this was the first time she would have to deal with the Horde face to face since leaving them at the tender age of 19 (a fact she kept a strategic secret from everyone who knew her). One didn’t normally simply leave the Horde, but she’d been given an incredibly rare opportunity to leave when her former guardian landed her a place in the R.E.P. academy. The Republic of Etheria Protector Force wasn’t normally in the habit of taking on cadets who used to be part of the Horde, but her guardian had somehow managed to find someone within the academy willing to suppress that information. As she thought of the Horde, her mind inevitably brought up the topic of someone she didn’t want to think about. Her heart twisted in an all-too familiar ache. Five years had passed since leaving the Horde and all its troubles behind, and yet that one trouble never seemed to leave her heart. Adora had thrown herself full force into the Protector academy in hopes of forgetting someone she left behind in the Horde, but that didn’t stop her from thinking about her every damn day since.

After what felt like a small eternity of brooding about aforementioned “trouble,” the _Lunarium_ dropped out of hyperspace and they saw the _Elberon_ in their viewport. They also saw a much larger ship looming over it with the distinct symbol of the Horde painted in bright red on the hull.

Adora opened the ship’s internal comms. “Boarding party, meet in the transit room!” she barked into it. “Glimmer, you have the bridge. See if you can’t cripple the Horde’s engines without blowing up both ships, yeah?”

“On it!” her First Officer replied, plopping down in the captain’s chair.

Adora ran out of the bridge and to the transit room where her boarding party team was gearing up in Protector armor. They were the usual affair of beefy space Protector: Scorpia, a massive scorpion/humanoid with a stinger and pincers that could put fear in most people just by looking at them, Frosta, a short but stout ruffian with an attitude to match her scowl, Netossa, a calculating brawler if ever there was one, a set of siblings who called themselves “The Star Sisters,” and Perfuma, her Chief Medical Officer and possibly the best medic in the entire R.E.P. Force, but absolutely useless in a fight as she was a pacifist.

Adora finished suiting up just as the rest of her team and slid her helmet on.

“Everyone ready?” she asked.

“Ready!” Scorpia said enthusiastically. Frosta answered by slamming her gloved fists together.

Perfuma slipped on her helmet and picked up her medical case. “Ready.”

Adora signaled to the robot assistant (whom her batty engineer had named “Emily”) to initiate transit. A few dizzying seconds later they were standing in the cargo bay of the _Elberon_. They could hear the sound of battle in a nearby corridor and Adora took off towards it, her troop close on her heals.

“Set your weapons for stun. We’re Protector, not pirates,” Adora shouted as they ran. “Lookin’ at you, Frosta!”

“You’re no fun!” Frosta shouted back with a light-hearted laugh.

They burst through the corridor and opened fire on the Horde pirates attacking the crew of the _Elberon_. They were easy to differentiate—the leader of the Horde always insisted that they dress in Horde colors. Scorpia barely needed a gun—she had dropped four Horde pirates by picking one of them up and throwing him at three others within seconds of entering the firefight. Within a few minutes they had taken back the corridor and made their way to the bridge while Perfuma cuffed the prisoners and made sure they weren’t mortally wounded in the firefight.

“I’ll go to the Captain’s quarters and make sure they didn’t steal the ship’s cargo destination logs. The rest of you, clear this level,” Adora said and veered off towards the crew quarters.

A few moments later she stopped in front of the captain’s door and took a deep breath, turning up the stun power on her gun. On her exhale she triggered the door’s sensor to open and leapt in the doorway.

“R.E.P., hands in the air, get on the floor!” she bellowed.

In the room hunched over a control console stood a humanoid being with a very poofed tail and rigid, startled ears. The ship and everything around Adora seemed to go silent and she could swear the walls closed in around her. She knew those ears, that short messy hair, that tail, that delicious sienna skin that had no business being so sexy. The woman turned towards her with a face that was the essence of annoyed but faltered when their eyes met.

“C-Catra?” Adora said in a weak whisper.

The woman blinked, her face a mask of surprise. “Hey, Adora.”


	2. Call Me

Adora was fairly certain her heart was going to explode out of her Protector armor it was pounding so hard. She’d thought of this day, dreamed of this day for five long years and now that it was here, she was completely, uselessly, frozen to the spot. She’d rehearsed and imagined all the things she was going to say to Catra, and yet here she stood with not a single word coming to her malfunctioning brain. The cat had her tongue. As soon as she realized this, she mentally kicked herself for the terrible pun. The ship suddenly lurched from what sounded like an attack, fortunately startling her out of her complete and utter panic.

“C-Catra, what are you doing here?” she stammered.

“What am _I_ doing here? What are _you_ doing here?” Catra demanded, taking a bold step forward, despite Adora’s gun still being pointed at her chest.

“I-I’m a. . .I’m. . .” Adora continued to fail at words.

“A Rep, I see,” Catra said, taking another step forward. “So this is why you left the Horde, is it, Adora? Wanted to play Protector with the nice Etherians?”

Adora swallowed. Her name had a way of rolling off Catra’s tongue like butter and _gods_ that flirty smile still made her heart flip-flop like a heart attack. She tried coming up with an answer but the ship lurched again and suddenly Catra was across the room standing right in front of her. Adora yelped when she felt a stun blade make contact with her metal suit. She crumpled to the floor, Catra standing over her with an insufferable (if incredibly flirty) smirk.

“Out of all the Reps in all of Etheria, it just happened to be you today,” Catra said. “What _are_ the odds?” She pulled a small communication device from one of her black cargo pants pockets. “Gotta run, Adora. Call me.”

And then Catra vanished, leaving Adora in a crumpled, embarrassed heap on the floor. She only prayed she could move before her crew found her here. She gritted her teeth and with every last ounce of her willpower, she silently ordered her arms to move. Her finger twitched. She cursed. The ship lurched yet again, but this time she was able to use it to roll herself to her hands and knees. She cursed again and with no shortage of struggling, managed to reach up and flip on the comm in her ear.

“Glimmer, what are you doing? I told you to attack the Horde ship, not the _Elberon_!” she snapped.

“There’s a firefight going on up here, Captain!” Glimmer snapped back. “I’m not the one hitting the _Elberon_ , the stupid Horde ship is!”

“What are you firing at them with, sticks? Take them out, Glimmer!”

She heard a frustrated growl before the comms switched back off. Right about then, she felt a pair of powerful arms scoop her up off the floor and stand her on her feet. She found herself staring into the large concerned eyes of Scorpia.

“Bridge is clear, Captain. Are you all right? What happened?” Scorpia said all at once.

“I’m fine,” Adora said, though her knees wobbled slightly. “They only got me with a stun blade.”

“Oh good,” Scorpia said. “Because when I saw you lying on the floor, I definitely thought the pirates had murdered you.”

“I don’t go down that easy,” Adora said, hiding the communication device Catra had given her in a chest pocket. “Let’s clear out the rest of the ship!”

She and the rest of the boarding party swept the rest of the ship but found no more Horde pirates. It appeared after losing the bridge they gave up the fight. Soon after, Glimmer’s voice came through the comms again.

“The Horde ship has jumped into hyperspace, Captain. Should we follow them?” Glimmer asked.

“No,” Adora answered. “Our priority is escorting the _Elberon_ safely back to Bright Moon Station. Notify the Rep Force of their last known location. We’ll catch them in the next firefight.”

“Yes, Captain,” Glimmer replied and the comms went silent.

As they made their way through the corridors of the _Elberon_ , Frosta cracked her knuckles impatiently. “Are you sure we shouldn’t go after them, Captain? We could totally take ‘em!”

“Our job is to serve and protect, Lieutenant,” Adora said firmly. “We aren’t a conquering military, Etheria is very clear on this stance. It’s why we are a Protector force and not a military force.”

“Yeah, yeah, propaganda blah blah,” Frosta said with a frustrated sigh. “But won’t we be protecting more people in the long run by _crushing_ the Horde now?”

“There is literally nothing _not_ problematic with everything you just said,” Adora said with a flat look. “I’m sure we’ll have plenty more opportunities to fight the Horde. Now leave it be, Lieutenant.”

Whether or not Frosta agreed, she at least stopped arguing about it. They reached _Elberon’s_ bridge and Adora held a hand out to the captain.

“Captain Adora of the R.E.P. Force ship _Lunarium_ ,” Adora said.

“Captain Spinerella of the Etherian transport ship _Elberon_ ,” the curvy captain replied. “But please call me Ella,” she added. “Thank you for the assist, Captain Adora.”

“How’s your ship? Any casualties?” Adora asked, looking over the bridge which had multiple burn marks from wayward gunfire.

“No, thanks to your quick response,” Ella replied. “We’d appreciate an escort back to Bright Moon Station, though, if that’s all right.”

“Of course!” Adora said with a smile.

Later that evening after docking at Bright Moon Station with the _Elberon_ and reporting the incident to her superiors, Adora retired to her captain’s quarters to go over the ship’s cargo logs. Although Glimmer and Bow tried talking her into blowing off steam at the local Rep hangout pub called Beast Island, she politely declined. She was far too distracted thinking about the Horde attack, especially done so deep in Etherian space. As a former Horde smuggler, she would have assumed the attack to be random. But the Protector officer in her was nagging her for some reason. The _Elberon_ wasn’t a ship that normally carried rare or expensive cargo, but according to the ship’s logs, they did just come from an unusual area of space that the Republic of Etheria wasn’t known for frequenting.

Adora was about three-quarters of the way through the cargo manifest (and trying hard not to fall asleep) when her eyes passed the words, “Relic Tech Device. Location: Despondos.” She blinked.

“Despondos?” she muttered under her breath. “Why were you at Despondos?”

Despondos was a backwater planet far outside Etherian Republic space, and Etheria had good reason not to claim it—it was a Demon Class planet, meaning uninhabitable by carbon-based life forms. Adora’s mind started spinning with theories.

“Darla, cross reference all cargo ships that have been attacked by Horde ships within the last ten Etherian moon cycles that had any relic tech logged in their cargo,” she said to her ship’s computer.

“Referencing,” Darla, the ship’s computer, said. Normally Etherian ships didn’t have names, but Entrapta had named her as such, and since then, Darla refused to answer to “Computer” any longer. Then, a second or so later, “There have been thirteen recorded incidences of Etherian cargo ships carrying relics and twenty non-Etherian cargo ships carrying relics that have had some form of interaction with Horde ships. Not all interactions were reported as attacks. Eighteen out of the twenty non-Etherian ships were non-violent exchanges with Horde ships.”

Non-violent exchanges weren’t so uncommon with the Horde. Though the Republic of Etheria refused to do any legal trade with the Horde, plenty of planets outside Etherian space still exchanged goods with them. It was interesting that they seemed particularly keen to get their hands on ancient tech; Adora couldn’t understand the need. Was there black market value of which she was unaware? She made a mental note to ask Entrapta tomorrow.

She shifted on the bed and suddenly felt something dig into her thigh from her pocket. She reached in and withdrew the communication device Catra had given her, which she’d surprisingly forgotten about until now. She stared at it for what felt like a small eternity. These particular devices were all kinds of illegal in Etheria due to their untraceable nature, and they were designed to piggyback, unseen, on just about any existing network. The Etherian Republic wasn’t big on people using their networks without their explicit permission.

Adora knew she should report it. She knew that. She knew she could never use it to call Catra because then she would be breaking the law, and not as a citizen of Etheria, but as a _Protector_ _officer_ no less. She knew all this. She also knew there was no way she was going to hand over her only chance of ever seeing Catra again.


	3. Puzzle Pieces

Despite having had quite a successful raid that day, Catra felt unsettled. Empty. Also, despite her show of bravado in front of Adora, her insides were twisted in terrified knots. Of all the things she’d imagined she would say to Adora, “Call me,” was never even close to being one of them. She’d imagined yelling at Adora, screaming at her, demanding to know why she’d just disappeared one day without a trace or without even saying goodbye. But never a plea for Adora to talk to her. Never that.

When she’d asked Shadow Weaver—the woman who took them in as orphans and raised them in the pirate faction called the Horde—why Adora left, all she had told Catra was that Adora had left and wanted no part of them or the Horde any longer. At first she didn’t believe it, couldn’t believe it. Catra felt like Shadow Weaver was always trying to drive a wedge between them, especially when they aged into rebellious teenagers and started talking about leaving the Horde together. But when Adora never contacted her, never came for her, doubt crept into Catra’s heart. After crying herself to sleep for far more many nights than she cared to admit, Catra focused all her energy on hating the very memory of Adora, steeling her heart to the pain of losing her and being left behind.

But when she saw Adora after five long years, all that hatred melted away as soon as she saw those baby blue eyes. She also wasn’t so sure about why Adora left without her anymore. She’d seen Adora quite clearly today. Adora’s face wasn’t one of regret at having to face someone she wanted to leave behind and never see again. Adora had never been particularly good at hiding her emotions from Catra, and Adora’s face, her entire _being_ was emanating surprise and most puzzling: _desire_. It was the same fumbling over words that Catra loved to cause in Adora when she would playfully flirt with Adora as teenagers.

As if on cue, Catra’s communicator suddenly screeched at her. Her heart fluttered like a damn butterfly when she thought it might already be Adora, but she saw only Shadow Weaver’s code and snarled. Taking an annoyed breath, she pulled open the device and Shadow Weaver’s masked face appeared on the screen.

“Yeah?” Catra said, hoping to sound casual. She really didn’t want Shadow Weaver suspecting anything amiss; she had no intention of telling her about her run-in with Adora.

“I heard your ship had a run-in with a Rep ship,” Shadow Weaver said in what almost sounded like an accusatory tone. “Did you get what Hordak wanted? Did they find out what you were after?”

“Nice to see you, too,” Catra said sarcastically. “‘Thanks for all your hard work, Catra’.”

“Don’t be petulant with me, child,” Shadow Weaver snapped. “Were you successful or not?”

A soft growl of frustration slipped through Catra’s fangs. “Of course I did. You really think a couple of Reps could stop me?”

“They didn’t find out what you took, did they?” Shadow Weaver pressed.

“We all but emptied that cargo hold. Some little piece of ancient tech junk will be the least of their problems,” Catra replied, looking at her nails in boredom.

“Where did they find the tech? Did you get the cargo manifest?”

“Yeah, I got the coordinates. Some backwater Demon Class planet called Despondos.”

“Good. Send me the coordinates. Come back to Horde Prime Station at once with your cargo and I’ll give you your next mission.”

“Already on my way. I wasn’t born yesterday, you know,” Catra said, curling her lip to reveal a fang. “What is Hordak after, anyway? We’re starting to attract a lot of unwanted attention from the Etherian Republic. If we’re not careful, they’re going to start sending Reps to the Fright Zone nebula to find us.”

“Oh little Catra, you aren’t afraid, are you?” Shadow Weaver said with no little amount of condescension in her voice.

Catra snarled. “You know what? Forget it. Have your stupid tech junk. As long as I get paid, it makes no difference to me.” She flipped off the communicator and threw it against her pillow. She almost aimed for the wall, but stopped herself at the last moment. It was her only link to Adora right now, though she hated herself in that moment for her hesitation. Adora abandoned her without so much as a goodbye or backward glance, and yet here Catra lay, clinging to the one thing she might be able to use to scream at Adora like she’d dreamed of for five years.

She grabbed her pillow and covered her face. She was so angry with Adora, and yet she was so accursedly _happy_ to see her. She wanted to scream and laugh all at the same time. In the end, she cried. This also made her angry, but it felt so good to have hope for the first time in five years that she allowed herself to feel everything. She cried, then she scream-laughed into her pillow. She hadn’t cried so hard since Adora left. Why did that damn human seem to hold the key to so many of her emotions? She didn’t know. All she knew was that right now, she longed for her communicator to screech at her again and for it to be Adora on the other end.

* * *

Despite desperately wanting to use the illegal communicator to contact Catra, Adora didn’t dare in her captain’s quarters. She wasn’t at all sure Entrapta hadn’t programmed Darla, the ship’s computer, to spy on everyone for some social experiment or another, so at the moment she was trying to think of someplace safe to do so. After an almost entirely sleepless night agonizing over this, she finally gave up when her clock hit O-six hundred hours. She fumbled out of bed and took a long shower in an attempt to wash away the stresses of the night. In the shower, her body then completely betrayed her by getting all kinds of aroused thinking about Catra. She resisted, for roughly two minutes, relieving herself to a fantasy of Catra, but in that two minutes of not trying to think about Catra, she started imagining all sorts of things that were not conducive to turning herself off. After rather guiltily relieving her arousal, she flipped off the hot water and stood grumpily in cold water for several minutes.

“Good morning, Captain!” Perfuma said cheerily as Adora entered the mess hall a bit later.

Adora smiled back, reaching for a power bar. “Hey, Perfuma. What’s the flavor of the day?”

“Etherian passionberry,” Perfuma answered. “Though it tastes more like blue kale to me.”

“Blue kale? Man, it’s not even the good kale. At least red kale is sort of flavorful,” Adora complained. Perfuma giggled and poured Adora a mug of coffee.

“Thanks,” Adora said, accepting the mug and took a deep drink of the steaming liquid. “Say, I need to go to Commander Mara’s office after breakfast, want to come with? Maybe we could hit up that incense shop you like so much after? Try a guided meditation with it after?”

“I’d love to! If you’re free, want to join Scorpia and I for lunch later? There’s a great new vegan place called Bright Flower. I hear they have the best fried tofu in the entire station.”

“You and Scorpia?” Adora said with a sly grin. “Do I sense some romantic energies at work here? I’m not gonna lie, I hope so, cuz I like, really ship you two.”

Perfuma giggled, a light rose dusting her cheeks. “We’ve only been on a couple of dates, but she’s so romantic.” Perfuma sighed happily. “She’s so good for my inner chi balance. It’s like she gets it, you know?”

Adora’s heart fluttered at the thought of going on romantic dates with a certain someone she’d run into yesterday.

“Yeah,” Adora replied softly.

“Are you alright, Adora?” Perfuma asked, interrupting Adora’s daydreaming. “Your energy seems a little out of balance today.”

“What, who me? I’m fine. Just couldn’t sleep,” she answered hurriedly.

“I have some really good tea for that. I’ll give you some tonight. We can’t have a tired captain, now can we?”

Adora gave her a weak smile. “Is that an order as Chief Medical Officer?”

“Yes,” Perfuma said with another cheery smile.

About an hour later, Adora and Perfuma sat outside Commander Mara’s office waiting to be allowed in. Having never been one to sit still easily, Adora tapped her foot impatiently. Adora couldn’t tell who was in her commander’s office at the moment, but they were long past their appointment time. Just as she was starting to contemplate barging into the office, the door slid open and out walked Light Hope, the Rep Force Protector Chief. She was a tall woman with long silvery hair and cold blue eyes, and her lavender skin, though beautiful, only served to make her whole appearance more intimidating. Though Light Hope was always strictly professional with Adora, she had never really liked the Protector chief. She lacked warmth and there was something about her smile that never felt genuine. Regardless, she sharply saluted the Protector chief as she walked by, though Light Hope barely gave her and Perfuma a sideways glance. Brushing it off, Adora glanced at Mara who waved her in.

“Adora! How’s my favorite captain?” Mara asked with a warm smile. “Not that I play favorites, of course,” she added with a wink.

Adora all but worshipped Mara. It was Mara who had allowed Adora into the Rep Academy, knowing full well Adora had grown up in the Horde. She felt like Mara was the loving mentor Shadow Weaver never was. She often wondered what her and Catra’s lives would have turned out like if it was Mara who found them as children and not Shadow Weaver.

“Commander,” Adora said with an equally warm smile and she and Perfuma sat down in the chairs in front of Mara’s desk. “I’m going to assume you already know Perfuma.”

“Oh, we’ve met,” Perfuma said. “She was the one who recommended me for the _Lunarium_.”

“Best damn medic in the entire Rep Force,” Mara said with a grin to Perfuma. “President Angella asked for the best and I delivered the best.”

“Oh stop,” Perfuma said with a giggle.

“Which doesn’t explain why she chose me as Glimmer’s captain. She just wanted a noob who wouldn’t get sent on dangerous missions, huh?” Adora said, folding her arms with the sudden realization. Now that she thought about it, that was probably exactly why Glimmer had been assigned to the _Lunarium_. “Wow, that is really insulting, thanks Commander.”

Mara laughed. “It’s a compliment. I trusted you to look out for Glimmer. So what brings you by?”

“I found something strange in the cargo manifest of the _Elberon_ and was hoping for permission to launch an investigation,” Adora replied, sliding a report across to the commander. “It would seem the Horde is after something, and based on how much time and energy they’re putting into it, I would say it’s important. I will need to know why the Republic of Etheria sent the _Elberon_ to Despondos, though.”

Mara’s eyes snapped up but otherwise did a good job of masking her emotions. “You connected the dots quickly, I commend you Adora. You’re correct; the Horde is after ancient tech, something we’ve suspected for quite some time. President Angella ordered the _Elberon_ there on a scientific research mission to find ancient tech. It was Light Hope’s idea to use the _Elberon_ as bait to see if the Horde would target it,” Mara added darkly. “Not that you heard that from me. It revealed two very important pieces of information. The Horde is definitely after ancient tech, and someone within the ranks of the Etherian government or Rep Force fed them that information. There’s no other way they could have known about the cargo. I will deal with the spy, but I need someone I can trust to investigate the reason they’re so keen to get their hands on old tech.”

“Tell me what you need me to do,” Adora said without hesitation.

Mara cast a cautious glance at Perfuma. “Perfuma, can you give us a minute, please?”

Perfuma looked surprised, but she didn’t argue. She rose and left the office, and the door slid shut behind her.

Mara turned her gaze back to Adora. “Do you still know anyone that does business with the Horde? Maybe anyone who might have sold them some tech?”

Adora worried her lower lip. “One. But she’s a little. . . volatile. I would need to approach her very carefully, and not as a Rep Officer. She’d have to believe I was either still with the Horde or an independent smuggler. She’s quick to light things on fire if she suspects foul play.”

“You are officially authorized to do what you deem necessary to get the information. We need to stay ahead of this. Whatever the Horde is planning, I have a nagging feeling it’s nothing good. If your crew asks why they can’t accompany you, just tell them it’s because I ordered it. I know you aren’t big on telling people you used to run with the Horde.”

“Thank you, Commander,” Adora said, rising to her feet. “I won’t let you down.”

Mara gave her another warm smile. “You never do.”


	4. Shadows of the Past

Adora sat in her captain’s chair, brooding like a thundercloud. Not only did she not particularly want to go to Salineas in the small shuttle Mara had assigned her for the mission, but she still hadn’t had a chance to safely contact Catra. It also didn’t help that her undercover outfit was, for lack of a better word, lame. She had on thick black cargo pants with far too many pockets, and a skin-tight black T-shirt with a radioactive symbol painted in green on the front. She wasn’t entirely sure why Etheria was so bad at designing pirate clothes, but it was the best she could do on short notice. The shuttle was in the _Lunarium’s_ cargo hold and they were hurtling towards Salineas Station in hyperspace, about to carry out her mission. In retrospect, it was an incredibly hair-brained plan.

“We’re reaching the edge of Etherian space, Cap,” Bow said, dropping the _Lunarium_ out of hyperspace. “You’ll have to take the shuttle the rest of the way. Are you sure about this, Captain? Salineas Station isn’t exactly known for being the safest place for Etherians, especially Reps.”

“Yes, thank you, Bow, I’m aware,” Adora said with a sigh. “How far out are we?”

“Without a hyperdrive, it will take you about a day. Not sure why Mara gave you a ship without a hyperdrive. Seems a little. . . crazy.”

“Captain, I’ve said it before but it bears repeating. I think this is a terrible, reckless plan,” Glimmer stated loudly.

“Oh relax,” Adora said with a playful roll of her eyes. “Danger is part of the job. And besides, you put a tracking device in the shuttle, right?”

“I installed three,” Glimmer declared. “You think I’m going to trust fate with just one measly tracking device? Not a chance. But again, why am I not going with you?”

“Because those were Mara’s orders,” Adora answered and pulled a small diamond-shaped device from a cargo pocket. “Besides, I have this handy S.O.S. device Entrapta made me. I’ll use it if I suspect anything amiss and you can come pick me up in a flash. Because, unlike that stupid shuttle, the _Lunarium_ actually has a hyperdrive.”

“Yeah we will pick you up in a flash. And don’t you forget it,” Glimmer said with her usual amount of hubris.

Adora grinned and rose from her captain’s chair. “First Officer Glimmer, you have the bridge. Try not to get into too much trouble while I’m gone.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Glimmer smirked.

Adora made her way to the cargo hold and was about to board the shuttle when she suddenly found herself staring into the large, concerned eyes of Scorpia.

“Captain, are you _sure_ I can’t come with you? You are going to a very dangerous part of space alone, without backup or muscle. I mean, aren’t there rules against that?”

“It’s just a simple recon mission, Scorpia. I’ll be fine, I promise.”

She stepped onto the shuttle and looked back at the lieutenant. “Besides, someone has to keep an eye on Perfuma,” she said with a smirk and a grin. The shuttle door slid shut and Adora chuckled when she heard Scorpia mutter something embarrassed.

Adora switched on a few power buttons and the engines of the shuttle roared to life, then she plopped down in the pilot seat. The shuttle wasn’t a bad size; she could at least stand in the small cargo area in the back to stretch her legs. Mara had used a discretionary Rep Force fund to provide Adora with a small hyperdrive power cell to sell at Salineas to legitimize her cover, and it took up more than half the small cargo area. Fortunately, it left just enough room for a small cot and bathroom.

“All clear for take-off,” Adora said in the comm.

“I added a signal booster to the commincator in your shuttle so you won’t lose communications,” Entrapta’s voice screeched through the comms, startling Adora. “Good for a distance of at least 50 lightyears, I’d say.”

“Be careful, Adora,” Glimmer’s concerned voice filled the comm. “And good luck.”

Adora flew the shuttle out of the cargo bay doors and settled in for her long flight to Salineas Station. Roughly an hour later, after staring at stars slowly drifting by and going out of her mind with boredom, Adora suddenly remembered the communicator Catra had given her. She felt her cheeks flush as she pulled it from her cargo pants pocket. She pulled it open and saw her own face in the blank screen looking back at her. She looked every bit as anxious as she felt. With shaking hands, she turned on the communicator and gazed at the code. It had changed a bit, but she could still see Catra’s favorite number embedded within it. She pressed the contact button and instantly her heart started hammering in her chest. Now that she thought about it, this was probably a terrible idea and what was she thinking??

“Hey, Adora.”

Adora nearly dropped the communicator. “C-Catra! I-I mean, hey Catra. Um. . . hi.”

A glittering pair of eyes, one fiery yellow, one blue, gazed back at her through the screen. To Adora’s surprise, they didn’t look quite as confident as Catra’s sultry voice might indicate.

“I didn’t think you’d call,” Catra said, looking away from the screen, her brows furrowing with doubt.

“Are you kidding? I’ve been trying for five years to figure out how to contact you. I nearly got caught multiple times trying to sneak into a comm relay at the Rep Acadamy trying to reach you.”

“What?” Catra said, looking back at Adora. “Why?”

“Why?” Adora echoed. “Because. . .” she faltered. “Because I hated how things ended. I never felt right about what Shadow Weaver said, how all of it played out.”

“You hated it?” Catra repeated, disbelief entering her face. “If you hated it so much, then why did you leave? Do you know what that did to me, Adora? You _abandoned_ me! Gods, I _hated_ you for it!” Angry tears formed in Catra’s eyes and the sight broke Adora’s heart all over again.

“After our fight, I didn’t think you wanted to come with me,” she said, desperately hoping to keep Catra talking. “When I was boarding the transport shuttle, Shadow Weaver came to me and told me you didn’t want to come with me, that you never wanted to see me again.”

“ _What_?” Catra snarled. “She told me you didn’t want me to come, that you wanted to leave me behind. Wait, and you _believed_ her? How could you believe her? How could you believe her and just _leave_ me?” Catra was all but screaming now.

“Because I was a stupid kid!” Adora countered, frustrated tears stinging her eyes. “She raised us, and in my fear after our fight, I was so afraid she was right that I ran away. She told me I would never get another chance to leave the Horde, and so I ran. But I haven’t stopped trying to contact you, but you changed your comm code. I still am, I never stopped.”

This seemed to catch Catra off guard. “Y-you are?”

“Of _course_. Why do you think I’m contacting you on a highly illegal device, on a Rep _mission_ no less? I made you a promise, Catra. I may have royally screwed up along the way, but I never gave up on you. But contacting the Horde when you’re a Rep Officer isn’t exactly an easy feat.”

Catra forcefully brushed tears out of her eyes. “Shadow Weaver lied, you know. It’s not like there haven’t been other transports to Etheria from Horde Prime Station. They don’t come often, but they come.”

Adora’s mind couldn’t seem to process this.

“Gods, you really don’t get it when you’re being manipulated, do you?” Catra said.

“I reiterate: I was a kid. You’ve always understood Shadow Weaver better than me, always knew when she was manipulating us. I tend to take things at face value, gods help me.”

To Adora’s surprise, Catra exhaled a small laugh. “Remember the time I convinced you the sewer line in Alpha Block was full of sludge ghosts? You wouldn’t go near there for months.”

A grin tugged at the corner of Adora’s lips. “Didn’t we name that ghost Sludgy?”

“Only after I found how traumatized you were. I had to make it seem less scary, so I gave it an innocuous name.”

“I wasn’t traumatized!” Adora said with mock-indignation. “I could have taken Sludgy any day of the week!”

They laughed lightly for a few seconds then slipped into an uneasy silence, both lost in thoughts of the past.

“Adora?” Catra said softly, breaking the quiet.

“Hmm?”

“What did we fight over that day?”

Adora’s brow furrowed as she conjured the memory. The details were harder to remember now. “I told you I wanted to join the Rep Acadamy, and I remember you saying you didn't, that there had to be a better way of leaving the Horde than becoming a Protector. You said it sounded really dumb and boring and I remember getting mad because I thought that meant you thought I was dumb and boring. I was so hurt it felt like the end of the universe. But really I was hurt so much because I thought it meant you didn’t like me or want to come with me or be with me.”

“I remember now,” Catra said, nodding slowly. “I remember Shadow Weaver talking to me earlier that day. She told me that Reps were all dirty and showed me some Reps on Horde payroll. I remember not wanting to trade one criminal faction for another. Looks like you’re not the only one who was manipulated by Shadow Weaver that day. We had such a great caretaker growing up, didn’t we?”

Adora ran her thumb softly over the image of Catra’s face. “I’m sorry, Catra. I’m so, so damn sorry I hurt you, that I left without a word, without talking to you first. I begged my C.O. at the academy to help me get you out, but by the time I asked her for help, she said her contact in the Horde—Shadow Weaver—had changed her communication code and she couldn’t reach Shadow Weaver any longer.”

Catra looked away, rubbing her neck like she always did when she was agitated. “Looks like Shadow Weaver got what she wanted. Galaxies between us and now even on opposite sides of Etherian law. Sometimes I wish she’d never found me.”

“I don’t,” Adora said firmly and Catra’s eyes lifted to meet hers. “Despite everything she did, it’s because of her that we met. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t give that up for anything. And now, despite her best efforts, we found each other again. The two of us, in an _infinite_ universe, found each other again. And I’m not letting you go again, Catra. I know you don’t trust me right now, and for good reasons. But I am here now, and I’m not going anywhere. I will do whatever it takes to prove that to you. Just. . . just please give me this chance to earn your forgiveness. That’s all I ask. Just one chance.”

So much emotion filled Catra’s eyes that it made Adora feel as though her heart was being ripped in two. She wanted to leap through the screen and hold Catra until the end of time itself.

“Well I’m here, aren’t I?” Catra mumbled, a soft blush rising in her freckled cheeks.

“I’m sorry, Catra. I’m just. . . I’m so sorry, I’m sorry. . .”

Adora repeated this over and over until time melted away and all that existed was the screen in front of her with Catra’s face. They stayed up long into the night talking, crying, and occasionally laughing, catching up on all the things they missed, all the time they lost. And although she knew this reconnection between them was fragile right now, though she knew she would have to very carefully rebuild Catra’s trust, she would not waste this incredible opportunity that had been given to her. She had found Catra again, and right now, nothing else in her entire universe mattered but that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *See note at the beginning of the story about the rename of R.E.P. Force to "Republic of Etheria Protectors."*


	5. Mermista’s Mysteries

Adora and Catra didn’t fall asleep until late into the A.M. hours, they stayed up so late talking. Eventually they dozed off with their communicators still running, and when Adora’s alarm woke her up at o’six hundred, her eyes drifted open to see Catra’s sleeping face in the communicator screen. The sight made her heart flutter happily. Catra always looked so peaceful and relaxed in her sleep. Growing up, all it took for Adora to fall asleep was for Catra to lay on her chest and purr. She would have given anything in that moment to feel Catra’s body against hers again.

She heard a beep from the cockpit, indicating she was approaching Salineas Station. The noise stirred Catra and looked up with sleep-heavy eyes. She gazed at the screen for a few moments then seemed to have a realization.

“You’re. . . you’re still here,” Catra said softly.

“Sorry I woke you,” Adora replied, gently stroking the screen with her thumb. “I have to go, though. Duty calls.”

“Where are you going?” Catra asked with a yawn that showed off her razor-sharp fangs.

“Oh, um. . . Salineas Station,” Adora replied.

“Salineas? They don’t deal with Etheria. Why are you outside Etherian space? You’re a Rep; that’s not exactly safe space for you. Is everything okay?”

Catra’s ears leaned forward in concern, and the sight warmed Adora to her core. “Aw. Are you worried about me?”

“What? No!” Catra shot back, her mismatched eyes wide with indignation.

Adora burst into a fit of giggles. “Worth it.”

“Oh I’m going to get you for that, Rep Captain,” Catra said with a playful growl.

“Promise?” Adora said with an even wider grin.

Catra’s ears twitched and her eyes took on surprise, followed by adorable shyness. After a moment’s hesitation, she said, “When will I see you again?”

“Tonight after my mission, if you’ll have me,” Adora answered.

“Okay,” Catra said. “Just. . . Don’t be late, Rep Captain.”

The smile Catra gave Adora before turning off the communicator made Adora melt like butter all over the floor. She collected herself and got ready for the day. After a quick cold shower (because apparently all Catra had to do was look at her to arouse Adora), she got dressed, had a power bar, then plopped in the pilot seat just in time to see Salineas Station in her viewport.

The shuttle’s comm suddenly screeched at her and she answered it before it made her go crazy.

“State your business,” a large, hairy humanoid creature barked as soon as she answered.

“Refueling and selling some salvage,” she replied.

“Identification,” he demanded.

Adora sent him the fake identity information that she and Mara had worked up for her. According to it, her name was Adora and she was a human from a small backwater planet called Candila.

“Docking bay 23,” he said brusquely after a few seconds of examining her I.D., and the image of his face vanished.

Adora docked the shuttle in an overcrowded docking bay, slid a stun blade in her boot, then made her way to the shopping area of Salineas Station. The station was so massive, thousands of people called it their home, and thousands more frequented it daily. Outside Bright Moon Station, it was probably the biggest hub of trade in the galaxy. The eccentric owner had made the whole station up with an incredibly beautiful and colorful watery theme, giving the whole station the feeling of being some underwater exotic paradise. An entire level was a massive water tank the size of a lake where patrons could swim, go boating, or even live. Part of the lake was sectioned off for a neighborhood of houseboats, and below the surface, a neighborhood of underwater dwellings for amphibious people.

Veering away from the busy market, Adora headed towards the higher levels where she knew the owner spent most of her time. She came to a long glass corridor that ran beneath a massive aquarium filled with tropical fish, at the end of which stood a bodyguard/bouncer the size of a small whale.

“I’d like to see Lady Mermista,” Adora declared when she reached him.

The giant squid looking humanoid turned his small black eyes to her. “And what makes you think you are worthy to see the Lady Mermista?” he said in a voice so deep she could swear she felt it reverberating off the glass surrounding them.

“I’m an old friend. Just tell her Adora is here with a fresh mystery for her.”

His beady eyes narrowed, but he flipped on a small comm. “I have an Adora here, saying she has a ‘mystery’ for you?”

“Let her in,” a bored voice replied.

He moved his tentacled self to the side, though he eyed her with suspicion as she passed him. She entered a large room filled with all the opulence one might expect from the owner of such a large station. Half the room was dedicated to a huge tropical bath roughly 50 meters long, and several merfolk were splashing and playing in the steaming, crystal-clear water. The other half was basically a tropical jungle filled with plants from all over the galaxy and shells of all shapes and sizes. Sitting on a giant shell throne in the middle of the room perched Mermista herself, a beautiful merfold with deep blue hair and creamy, chocolate skin. Her favorite human—an attractive mustachioed man named Sea Hawk—lay sprawled on her lap.

“Adora!” he said chipperly as she approached. “Long time no see, old chum!” He sprung to his feet and gave her a huge hug.

She returned his hug with a surprised laugh. “Hey Sea Hawk. Good to see you. Find anything fun to burn lately?"

“Business has been too busy for that, unfortunately. Although I am trying to talk Mermista into taking a seafaring vacation adventure to a planet called Seaworthy rumored to have the most dangerous sea caves to navigate in the universe.”

Adora laughed. “Sounds fun. And you should definitely take a vacation. You two work too hard.”

“Agreed! This calls for drinks. Cocktail? I make a mean Paradise Island.”

“I’d never turn a cocktail down from my favorite pirate,” she grinned, though she felt a ping of guilt for drinking on the job. She had a feeling Commander Mara would forgive her, though, given the circumstances. As he sauntered over to a bar area where a handful of other people were drinking and laughing, Adora turned to Mermista.

“Lady Mermista. It’s good to see you,” Adora said, hoping not to sound as stiff as she did in her head.

“Uuuuggghhhhh I reeeeally wish people would stop calling me that. Sea Hawk started it and now I can’t make it stop.”

Adora swallowed a chuckle. “Sorry. Mermista it is.”

“Whatever. Squidy out there said you had something for me? It had better be interesting. Also, what happened to you? Didn’t you used to run with the Horde?”

“I’m an independent smuggler now,” Adora replied quickly. “They took seventy percent of the cut. Why give away seventy when you could keep a hundred?”

“Uh, because you flew here in a shuttle the size of a shoe? Seriously, you had to have had a bigger ship in the Horde.”

Adora laughed. “True enough. But it gets the job done. I spend more time on planets and stations than on that little thing. Speaking of the Horde, I think they’ve found something big, and I want to know what it is. If you help me find whatever it is they’re looking for, I’ll give you a cut.”

This seemed to perk Mermista right up. “Oooh double crossing your old gang? Searching for mystery treasure? Intriguing, tell me more!”

Adora told Mermista what she’d learned thus far, minus the parts involving Reps. “Have they bought any old tech from you of late?” Adora finished.

“Yeah, they bought this weird old star map I’ve had laying around forever. But like, the names of the stars are in some crazy language no one’s heard of, and the constellations aren’t any that exist in this galaxy. If the star map is even accurate, it’s in an uncharted part of space. I may have made a copy or two for myself because I’m dying to know what the hell it is a map to.”

“And what do you want for a copy of that star map?” Adora asked.

“What are you offering?” Mermista countered.

“I have a brand new hyperdrive power cell I just lifted from an Etherian cruiser,” Adora replied.

“Uuggh so _boring_. You said you’d give me a cut of whatever they’re looking for, right?”

“But what if whatever they’re looking for is boring?” Sea Hawk asked, returning with their drinks.

“Way to be a buzzkill,” Mermista said, grabbing the neon blue drink from his hand and slurping loudly.

“But what if it’s something really interesting?” Adora countered. “Isn’t the whole fun of a mystery that you don’t know how it’s going to end? I’ll tell you what. I will take fastidious notes the entire investigation and sell the whole story to your favorite writer, and you get first print before it ever hits the shelves.”

“I, like, have no idea how you can even make good on that, but I’m into it. Okay, fine. You have a deal.”

Adora held up her drink and the three of them clinked their glasses, then took deep drinks to seal their deal. Admittedly, Adora couldn’t believe it worked, but she was extremely proud of herself in that moment.

*

Catra sat in a port-hole window sill on Horde Prime Station looking out over the Fright Zone nebula, though not really seeing anything in front of her. The Fright Zone nebula was normally a sight of endless fascination for her, but right now only thoughts of Adora consumed her thoughts. She still wasn’t convinced it was really happening. Had she just dreamed she’d run into her again? Was she going to wake up tomorrow and Adora would be gone again? Her heart twisted anxiously at the very thought.

“Catra! My favorite pirate in the galaxy!”

A squeak of surprise escaped Catra’s lips and she felt her tail poof like a damn feather duster. She turned and found herself staring into the face of the impossibly kind Khor, Hordak’s twin brother. He looked so much like Hordak, almost everyone simply called him Wrong Hordak because almost no one could tell them apart. She always knew which was which, though. Hordak’s eyes were cold, calculating, and filled with malice. Khor’s eyes had not a care in the whole universe. Khor also enjoyed playing with his hair color. Right now he was sporting a spikey, messy look, half of which was dyed dark blue, and the other half a deep plumb.

“You really gotta stop sneaking up on me like that,” Catra snapped. “It’s going to get you killed one of these days.”

“Oh you wouldn’t hurt a fly and you know it,” he said with a huge grin on his annoyingly chipper face. His constant positive attitude was frustratingly infectious.

Catra sighed and jumped down from the window sill. “What do you want, Khor?”

“Oh! I have a mission for you.” He pulled a small sphere with unusual markings engraved on it from his pocket and handed it to her.

She blinked and one of her ears twitched. “What is this?”

“It’s a map!” he burst out excitedly. He touched a couple of the markings and suddenly a three-dimensional star map appeared around them.

“Ooookay. A map for what?” she asked.

“We don’t know. It’s a part of space that hasn’t been explored very much by whoever makes star maps. Also, the star names are in a dead language. I need you to travel to the galaxy’s biggest known library and find out what the planet called Arxia is now called. And where it is.”

“Why don’t you just cross-reference that planet against current maps?”

“We tried, but sadly the Horde, nor the Etherian archives we stole, have explored this area of space, so we don’t know where it is.” He looked so genuinely saddened by this that Catra had to bite back a laugh.

“And why are you after some weird planet named by a dead language in some unknown part of the universe? What about this ‘Arxia’ is so interesting?”

“I don’t know. Isn’t it wonderful?” he beamed.

“Yeah okay. What do I get out of this? And when am I supposed to be going on this ridiculous mission? And why me?”

“Today. Right now. We’re going to a library, isn’t it exciting?” he said, his eyes glittering.

“Not really. Wait, we? You’re coming with me?” she asked.

“My dear brother wants me to contribute.”

Catra’s ear twitched. “You begged him to go, didn’t you?”

“Yes!” Khor exclaimed happily. “We can take my ship, the _Watchtower_. The crew quarters are more comfortable than your ship.”

Catra heaved an annoyed sigh and followed him through Horde Prime Station to the docking bay. She felt like Shadow Weaver was probably behind this, punishing her for some unknown reason. Or maybe Hordak was. Either way, the only thing that was going to get her through this day without going crazy was knowing that she would get to see Adora again tonight.

* * *

Adora stumbled to her shuttle that evening, fighting a losing battle against hiccups. She had spent most of the day keeping up her cover with Mermista and Sea Hawk, and only managed to steal away when they were so drunk they started making out on Mermista’s throne. Admittedly, Adora was having fun, but even in her drunken state, she remembered she needed to call Catra. After setting her shuttle on autopilot back to the _Lunarium_ , she flopped down on the small cot and pulled out the comm Catra had given her. Before Catra even answered, Adora could already feel herself grinning like an idiot.

“Hey, Adora,” Catra said in a soft voice, a small smile toying with the corners of her mouth.

Adora giggled. “Heeey-hic-Catra.”

Catra seemed not to be expecting a very drunk Adora. “Are you _drunk_? Since when do you drink? You’re like the biggest control freak I know.”

“Who, me?” Adora said, pointing to her own face. “I was on a mish-hic. Mshn. Mish-shun. See my shirt? I’mma radioactivist.”

Catra was now laughing outright. “Okay, I’ve got to record this.” Catra pressed a couple buttons on the communicator. “So, what’s a radioactivist, Adora?”

“Hmm? Oh issa activist of the radials.” Adora poked at the radioactive symbol on her shirt. “Activate the radios-hic!”

“I see,” Catra said, still giggling.

“You know, your face is really pretty,” Adora said, gazing lovingly into the screen. “I could stare at your eyes fur-ev-er. Can I-hic stare at your eyes furever, Catra?”

Catra blinked slowly and something entered them that Adora, in her hammered state, couldn’t quite read. Something had crept in them, a look that Catra gave her sometimes when they were younger.

“You’re such an idiot,” Catra said, resting her chin in her hands to gaze at Adora. The grin teasing Catra’s lips seemed to suggest her words did not match what she was feeling.

Adora rolled on her back and looked at the screen upside down. She gasped. “Woooow I’ve never seen your face upside down. Your ears are on your chin!”

Catra purred a laugh. “I must say, I am enjoying drunk Adora. I think I might have to get you drunk more often.”

“Okay,” Adora said, turning the communicator right side up. “Yooou can ge’me drunk whenever-hic you want.”

Catra’s smile softened further and Adora could now hear Catra audibly purring through the comm. “Stay with me tonight, Adora?”

Adora couldn’t remember ever being so happy to hear Catra purring. “Mmmmm. Fur-ever.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is anyone else like, madly in love with drunk Adora?? X3 Like seriously, I sooo wanted to see them interact while on better terms, because I feel like it would have been so cute and flirty. X3


	6. The Library

When Adora’s shuttle arrived back on the _Lunarium_ , she was feeling happier than she could ever remember feeling, despite the rather nasty hangover she was currently experiencing. Sea Hawk didn’t exactly hold back on the alcohol content of his drinks. She stumbled off the shuttle and squinted against the harsh lights of the cargo hold.

“Well? How did it go?” Glimmer asked, greeting her in the cargo bay.

Adora rubbed her face, trying to shake off her throbbing headache. “Great. We have a lead.”

“Excellent!” Glimmer said. “Are you all right? You look like hell. Wait. . . are you _hungover_? Since when do you drink? And since when do you drink on a mission??”

“Glimmer. Yes, I’m hungover. No, I don’t normally drink, but I had to for the mission, I was undercover. Now can you please not shout at me right now? It was a long flight back.”

“Why did you have to drink for the mission?” Bow asked. “And what is our lead?”

“This,” Adora said, pulling the copy of the star map from a pocket in her cargo pants. She turned it on and holo-stars filled the air around them.

“Whoa, cool!” Bow said. “Wait, where is this? I don’t recognize any of these constellations.”

“I don’t either. Anyone know where we can find someone who might know where it is or how to find it?”

“The Etherian archives probably do,” Glimmer suggested.

“I don’t think so. As soon as I was back in Etherian space I tried to cross reference the map, but the archives didn’t have anything. At least not on the network.”

“I think I know a library that might be able to help us,” Bow said. “But can you guys promise not to give me crap?”

“What? Why would we give you crap?” Adora asked, guiding them in the direction of the bridge. “I don’t care if you’re a library enthusiast.”

“Because. . .” He sighed. “Because my dads might possibly be the curators of the biggest library in the galaxy. It’s a planet on the edge of Etherian space, but my family is big on the whole ‘knowledge, study, learn, blah blah blah.’”

Glimmer burst into a fit of giggles then quickly cleared her throat. “Aw. Your dads sound like adorable book worms!”

“Well I think it’s amazing,” Adora declared. “To your home planet!” She then charged off to the bridge. Upon arriving at it, she halted. “What’s your home planet called, again?”

“Thaymor,” he replied flatly.

“To Thaymor, Darla!” Adora exclaimed.

After her rather excitable declaration, Adora sat down in the captain’s chair and Glimmer sat down next to her in the First Officer chair. “Captain, we need more of a plan than just ‘to Thaymor.’ What are we even looking for? Have you cleared this with Commander Mara? We need to call a meeting of your lieutenants and determine a clear plan of action.”

Adora sighed. Glimmer was right, of course. Adora just didn’t really want to think about details right now with her current headache. “All right. Bow, set a course for Thaymor. Glimmer, gather everyone in the mess. I’m going to get cleaned up.”

Adora rose from her chair and left the bridge in the direction of the crew quarters. She just realized she was still wearing her ridiculous undercover outfit. When she reached her quarters she stripped before the door even managed to slide shut. She went to the small bathroom and splashed her face with cool water. Although she was curious about what the Horde was chasing after, she was far more consumed with thoughts of something else. Catra, to be specific.

Adora splashed her face again and left her hands covering her face for a few moments. The more contact she had with Catra, the less interested she felt with this case. In the end, did it matter what the Horde was after? She supposed it mattered in that the Horde was attacking ships in Etherian space, and not all encounters had been without casualties, as was often the case with space battles. Adora chose to join the Rep Force because she wanted to help people, something the Horde wasn’t big on, but since reconnecting to Catra, she wasn’t as sure as she once was that being a Rep was the best way to do that. Wouldn’t it be more helpful to make real connections and friendships with people in the Horde and use that to build understanding and eventual agreement on ways to trade and coexist more amicably in the universe? Perhaps it was a rose-colored way of thinking about things. Or really, maybe she just wanted to make more “connections” with Catra. Probably that. She wanted far more contact than they had right now; she wanted to see Catra in person. But how?

Adora slipped into her Rep-issue uniform—a body suit with dark grey cargo pants and a white and grey long-sleeved shirt with two red stripes on the upper arm indicating her rank—pulled her back in her usual ponytail, hid Catra’s communicator in a pocket, then headed to the mess hall. Larger ships in the Rep fleet had actual meeting rooms, but the _Lunarium_ was not designed for weeks-long assignments like bigger ships.

“All right everyone, here’s the plan,” she said, looking around at all her lieutenants, Perfuma, and Entrapta. Adora held out the star map and turned on the holo-display of stars. “We’re going to Thaymor where the biggest library in the known galaxy resides to figure out what quadrant of space this star map is referencing. We’re looking for any references we can to the only planet named in the entire map,” she continued, pointing to a planet in the midst of a star cluster and nebula. “This language isn’t known in Darla’s database, so we’ll have to determine the name of the planet before we can ascertain its location. It’s likely a lot of the information we’ll need will not be on any current networks, so this might be a long mission. I’ve learned that the Horde is after ancient tech, and whatever it is they’re looking for, they’re willing to openly attack Etherian ships to find it. So we know it must be big. Entrapta, your assignment will be to search the library for any reason the Horde might be after ancient tech—for instance, is there something in the coding that suggests that it’s more advanced than what we have available now? Does it have some untapped power we don’t understand? And so on and so forth.”

“Oooooh can I play with it?” Entrapta said, staring at the star map.

“Knock yourself out,” Adora replied, tossing her the copy of the map. “I made copies for everyone. Questions?”

“I have one, and I’m just spit-balling here, but why do we care what they’re after? Shouldn’t our priority be protecting Etherians?” Scorpia asked, though she looked quite worried about openly questioning her captain.

“Where there’s tech, there are weapons,” Adora answered.

“Oh right. Sorry, Captain,” Scorpia said. Perfuma put a hand comfortingly on Scorpia’s shoulder and Adora bit back a grin. They were so adorable.

“It was a fair question,” Adora replied. “This mission is recon and intel only. We only want to know why the Horde is so interested to get their hands on _this_ tech and why they’re willing to engage in open combat with Etheria to do so.”

“Why aren’t we bringing any actual scholars with us?” Frosta asked. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m not exactly the ‘research in dusty old libraries’ type.”

“As of right now, the only people who know we’re even on this mission are in this room and Commander Mara. We can’t risk tipping off the Horde that we’re on them. So, not to sound callous, but suck it up, Lieutenant Frosta.”

“Sorry, Captain,” Frosta grumbled, but she quieted down further when Glimmer gave her a reassuring look. Adora also found Frosta’s crush on Glimmer adorable.

Adora handed out the rest of the star map copies and paused at Perfuma when she saw anxiety strewn across her face.

“Are you all right, Perfuma?” Adora asked, placing a comforting hand on the medic’s.

“What if it is weapons?” she asked softly as the other began conversing amongst themselves.

“I don’t know,” Adora answered honestly. “Hopefully we can reach them first so we can destroy them before the Horde can use them. I think we can all agree the last thing any of us wants is open warfare with the Horde.”

The rest of the flight to Thaymor was more or less uneventful, though they had a rather rowdy game of cards. Roughly half a day later they arrived at Bow’s home planet, and after meeting Bow’s very helpful, sweet dads, they directed her team to the oldest part of the library with archives dating back several thousands of years. Adora was settled in an empty isle with several old books strewn about her on the floor. Apparently, the language was of an ancient race called the First Ones, a once great empire that established the first interplanetary trade system some five thousand years ago. There were still scattered descendants of the First Ones, but their empire, like all empires, had crumbled to dust long ago.

Adora’s eyes were having a difficult time focusing on words for roughly the last hour. She had flipped through probably thirty books already trying to find some reference to the language in the star map that might help her find the name of the planet, but thus far was having abysmal luck.

Adora leaned her head back against the book shelf behind her with a soft _thud_. She looked around but couldn’t see any of her team; they were spread out all over the section which was quite massive. At this rate, it was going to take her a hundred years to find anything. Why did scholars always insist on books and not on decent digital archives?

She rose from the floor and rounded the corner to the next isle in hopes of finding some new book that would solve all her problems when she suddenly collided with another person in the library.

“I’m so sorry, I—” she started, but stopped in absolute shock when her eyes met the person with whom she had just collided. “ _Catra?_ ”

“ _Adora?_ ”

They both stared at each other in profound disbelief for several agonizing heartbeats. And then, pulled together like opposing forces, they fused together in a fierce, desperate embrace. As soon as her arms were around Catra, Adora suddenly felt like she could breathe for the first time in five long years. They clung to each other as though their very lives depended on it, and Adora was quite certain hers did. She suddenly couldn’t understand how she’d gone five years without Catra.

“Gods, Adora, what are you even doing here?” Catra asked, her voice muffled from her face being buried in Adora’s shoulder.

“I’m here on a mission,” Adora replied honestly.

Catra pulled back and gazed at Adora, doubt rippling through her eyes. “At a library? Shouldn’t you be protecting borders somewhere?” Catra’s eyes fell to the floor behind Adora and realization entered them. She took a step back. “How. How do you know about the Horde’s plan?”

“What? I don’t. Well, not really. I just connected the dots. The Horde has been buying a lot of old tech and I wanted to know why. And my investigation led me here. Although, if you’re here, then I’m wondering if Hordak even knows what it is he’s looking for.”

A cornucopia of emotions flashed across Catra’s face from doubt, to worry, to anger, and then eventually settled on resignation. “Hordak sent me here to find the location of some planet called Arxia. But I found something, Adora. I found reference to it, but it’s nothing good.”

“Why, what is it?” Adora asked, longing to reach out and comfort Catra.

“All I’ve found is an ancient reference to Arxia in this journal by a First One. She mentions ‘a terrible power hiding within Arxia.’ Whoever wrote the journal seemed. . . I don’t know, afraid of it. What if it’s some kind of weapon? I don’t even want to think about what Shadow Weaver would do with that kind of power.”

“Wait, is Arxia this planet?” Adora asked, pulling her copy of the star map from her pocked and flipped on the display.

“Yeah. Wait, where did you get a copy of that?” Catra demanded.

“Oh, um. . . I dropped in on Mermista at Salineas,” Adora replied with a sheepish blush.

“Oh _that’s_ why you were drunk,” Catra said with a soft laugh, though her smile had taken on a sultry undertone that made Adora’s cheeks flush in an entirely different way. Catra appeared to notice this, because surprise entered her mismatched eyes, followed by something else, something etched with pain.

“Gods, you’re not going to make it easy to stay mad at you, are you, Adora?”

Adora grinned and felt her blush deepen, but this time in shyness. And then Catra reached out with both hands, sinking her fingertips into the front of Adora’s uniform and clutching them with tightly fisted hands.

“I was so _angry_ with you, Adora. I even convinced myself I hated you. But apparently all I’ve been doing for the past five years was kidding myself. _Damn you,_ Adora!” she said, and Adora saw emotion well up so much in Catra’s eyes that tears risked spilling from them.

“I’m sorry, Catra,” Adora said again, and she would say it as many times as she needed for Catra to believe her. She would have done anything in that moment to take Catra’s pain away. “I’m here, Catra, I’m here and I mmf--!”

Adora was cut off mid-apology because suddenly Catra pulled Adora to her and their lips were crashing together and was she dreaming?? For a terrifying moment, Adora forgot how to breathe, and she was pretty sure her heart stopped all together. And then realized the full weight of what was happening and holy _shit_ Catra’s lips were soft and now she forgot her own name. Catra’s arms wrapped around Adora’s neck and when the other’s tongue brushed her lips demanding entrance, Adora lost all semblance of control. Grabbing Catra’s hips, Adora lifted her easily off the ground and, spinning them around, pinned Catra against the nearest bookcase. Catra growled into their kiss and wrapped her legs possessively around Adora’s hips. She also felt Catra’s tail wrap tightly around her waist and just that made Adora whimper into the kiss.

How long had she hungered for this? When she was still with the Horde, Adora used to fantasize about this very moment but never had the spine to go for it for fear Catra didn’t feel the same way. But _wow_ had she miscalculated, if the intensity of this kiss was any indication. Apparently Catra wanted this as much as she did, and now that it was finally happening, Adora couldn’t believe this didn’t happen sooner. _This_ is what she left behind all those years ago? Suddenly she was realizing what a grave mistake it really was.

Adora tore away from their kiss only so she could burn a trail of kisses down Catra’s cheek, chin, and latched onto her neck upon reaching it, yet again in awe of how soft Catra’s skin was. Her head spun when she heard Catra hiss in her breath to keep herself from crying out. Adora’s hands slid up Catra’s sides, pausing when she approached the sides of Catra’s breasts. She longed to touch them, but she reigned herself in and instead closed her arms around Catra in a covetous embrace. She then brought their lips back together in another desperate kiss, their tongues once again entwining. She wanted so much more, to touch and kiss and worship every part of Catra’s body, but she also knew she needed to let Catra set the pace on this, at least for now. Adora was all too aware that she had five years to make up for; five years of lost trust.

When Catra finally pulled away, Adora moaned softly in complaint at the sudden loss of contact. She also couldn’t think properly. Where was she, again?

“Damn it,” Catra said in a heavy whisper so filled with arousal it made Adora feel weak at the knees. She’d never seen Catra like this—kiss darkened lips, heavy eyelids, flushed cheeks, and panting from lack of oxygen. Adora nearly whimpered again from the sight.

“Come with me,” Adora said before she could stop herself. She leaned forward and brushed her cheek against Catra’s, pressing her lips close to the other’s ear. “Come with me, Catra. Forget the Horde, forget Reps, run away with me. We’ll make our own way in this universe. Together.”

Adora felt Catra’s fingers tighten on her back, and fortunately her sharp claws were retracted. Catra unwrapped her legs from Adora’s hips and Adora lowered her gently to the ground.

“I can’t, Adora,” Catra said, though she looked pained to say it. “If the Horde is looking for power or weapons or whatever, I can’t let Shadow Weaver get her hands on it. You need someone on the inside who can feed you information. You didn’t even know the planet’s name. I’ll be your informant.”

“ _What_? No. Catra, no. There’s no telling what Shadow Weaver would do to you if she found out you were my C.I. I’m not putting you in that kind of danger,” Adora said firmly.

But then she melted when Catra reached up and cradled Adora’s cheek with her hand, caressing it with her thumb. “Let me help you. Besides, it will be helping me. What hurts the Horde hurts Shadow Weaver, and I want to bring her down. I want to be done with her. You owe me this, Adora.”

Adora rested her forehead against Catra’s and exhaled a defeated sigh. “I’m only agreeing to this because you’re right—I owe you. And if this is what you want out of me, I’ll do it. But it doesn’t mean I have to like it. And if you suspect anything, _anything_ amiss, I want you to promise me you’ll tell me and I’ll pull you out, no questions asked.”

“To where?” Catra countered. “What is there for me besides the Horde? Do you honestly think I would last a day as a Rep?”

“It doesn’t matter. Anywhere. Hell, we could probably ask Mermista for sanctuary on Salineas; I bet she’d give us jobs. I’ll find away. I won’t leave you behind again, Catra. Never again.”

Adora felt Catra tighten her grip again. “Promise?” she asked softly.

“I’ll do one better,” Adora said and pulled back. She regretted the loss of contact, but this was important. She removed a gold pin in the shape of wings from her uniform. “These are my Captain wings. I want you to have them. They’re all I’ve striven for since becoming a Rep and they’re all I have.”

Catra’s eyes widened in surprise, then a lovely blush crept into her cheeks. “Won’t you get in trouble with your C.O. if they notice you don’t have these?”

“Yes, but I don’t care. This is my promise to you that I’ll be back for you.”

A swell of emotion filled Catra’s eyes as she accepted the pin. She attached it to the front of her red Horde uniform, then removed her black fingerless gloves. “These aren’t quite so irreplaceable as your Captain’s wings, but I want you to have them.”

Now it was Adora’s turn to be filled with emotion. She couldn’t remember a time growing up she’d seen Catra not wearing these gloves. She accepted them and immediately put them on, looking up afterward in time to see Catra’s eyes widen as she gazed at Adora’s hands. Catra’s blush returned, but this time deeper and her eyes darkened with enjoyment of the ownership proclamation of Adora.

“Gods, Catra, can I kiss you again?” Adora asked, barely able to stop herself in time to request consent.

Catra replied by forcefully grabbing Adora and this time she pushed the Rep Captain up against the bookcase. Their lips fused again in another burning kiss and Adora found herself whimpering all over again. Their kiss quickly evolved into something deeper, more desperate, and Catra’s lips and tongue were relentless. Catra pressed her full, warm body against Adora, and she groaned softly when she felt Catra vibrating against her in a deep purr.

Adora wanted more, _longed_ for more. And the hotter this kiss became, the harder it was to care that they were in a public space. Pulling the hair tie from Adora’s ponytail, Catra entangled her fingers in Adora’s hair, wrapping her other arm tightly around Adora’s neck again. Adora was having a hard time standing her head was spinning so much. And then Catra slid a leg up between Adora’s thighs. Her knees buckled in response which only made her burning arousal press down harder against Catra’s thigh, offering little relief from her current predicament. Catra’s purr deepened, clearly enjoying have this much control over Adora who might have felt sorry for herself if she weren’t so damn aroused. She dug her fingertips into Catra’s back for support and drove her hips down again, nearly crying out from the stinging pleasure of it.

“Adora?”

Reality came crashing back around them like an apocalyptic meteor shower. They jerked away from each other and looked wildly around, but fortunately the voice, which Adora identified as Glimmer, was still some ways off. Adora looked quickly back to Catra.

“It’s safer for you if my team doesn’t know I have a C.I. Please, just be careful, Catra. If anything happened to you, I. . . I don’t know what I’d—”

“I know,” Catra replied and planted one last fiery kiss on her lips. She pressed Adora’s hair tie in her hand, then leaped off around the corner.

Adora realized she must look quite a ruffled state, considering how incredibly _hot_ a make-out she’d just experienced. She straightened out her uniform and was fixing her hair (which Catra had happily made a mess of) when Glimmer came into view.

“Adora? Oh, there you are. You could have answered me, you know. How are you. . . are you all right?” Glimmer paused and looked Adora up and down.

“Hmm? What? Nothing, no I’m fine. I uh. . . fell asleep. But not before I found something!” she said, hoping to distract from her lame excuse. “The planet we’re looking for is called Arxia. Now that we have a name, maybe George and Lance can help us.”

“Whoa, really? Damn, color me impressed. Apparently you’re a very productive napper,” she added, looking at all the books strewn about the floor.

Realizing she’d made a mess, she began picking them up off the floor. Glimmer helped her for a few moments before pausing to look at Adora’s hands. “Oooh what’s with the gloves? And when did you put those on? I didn’t notice them when we came here.”

“I’m just going for a new look,” Adora replied, feeling herself go scarlet. “I picked them up at Salineas Station. What do you think? And you’re not allowed to hate them because I love them so much.”

Glimmer giggled. “All right, all right. Wear whatever makes you happy. And I think it’s a great look on you.”

Adora exhaled a small sigh of relief. Though Glimmer had none of the context to the gloves, Adora really wanted Glimmer to love them too.


	7. Distraction

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I can't quite figure out if Catra has fur or skin in the series, but my personal preference is that she has skin, not fur. Just not my jam. No judgement if it's yours. <3

_“Is this what you want, Adora?”_

_Adora’s back arched off the bed with a cry of pleasure. The word “yes” didn’t even begin to describe how much she wanted that. The weight of Catra’s body on hers, the feel of her warm, naked skin against her own, the vibration of Catra’s deep, happy purr. . . Adora was lost and never wanted to be found._

_Catra’s lips blazed a trail along Adora’s neck and shoulder, settling at the base of her neck to darken the skin with her lips. Catra’s clever fingers between Adora’s legs were driving her mad with pleasure and desire._

_“Catra!” Adora gasped, her body climbing, reaching for the finality she so desperately needed. She was close, so painfully close. . ._

Adora’s alarm suddenly screeched and she awoke with a start, her heart practically pounding out of her chest. Her body was covered in sweat and she realized her hand was clamped between her legs. She let out a moan of frustration into her pillow. She slammed her free hand on the computer interface on the wall next to her bed which silenced her alarm. She wanted to destroy it in that moment. She felt cheated. If she was being honest, she didn’t want to wake up from that dream at all. Well, she’d wake up from it happily if her dream were reality.

Adora sat up and rubbed sleep from her eyes, trying to talk herself into facing her day. The _Lunarium_ was currently docked back at Bright Moon Station after their long, two-day stay at Thaymor’s library, and she had an appointment scheduled in a couple of hours with Commander Mara to go over their action plan. After learning Arxia’s name, Adora was finally able to ascertain some actual useful information. Although they didn’t know the exact location of the quadrant yet, they did find reference to an area that used to be inhabited by First Ones called the Krytis Nebula which had a planet hidden within. An old journal of a First One referenced “a long journey to Arxia from the Krytis Nebula,” which was the best lead they’d had since the start of the investigation. She now just needed Mara’s authorization to visit it, though it was a significant distance out of Etherian space. The hope was they would find some ruins of the First Ones that might still contain some useful star maps or any information regarding the location of Arxia.

Adora stripped off her gray tank top and shorts and padded over to her small shower. Turning the water to near scalding temperature, she climbed in and immediately her thoughts drifted to Catra again. She longed to be standing in this shower with her, holding her, kissing every inch of her wet body. Adora’s hand moved down between her legs, seemingly of its own accord. Apparently she couldn’t even think about Catra since their kiss without becoming uncomfortably aroused. The hot water cascading down her body intensified her pleasure as she climaxed within roughly twenty seconds. Just the mere thought of that kiss in the library was enough to push her over the edge. Though she did achieve some much-needed relief, she was still left feeling unsatisfied. She craved so much more. By way of coping with said cravings, she brought herself to climax three more times.

She showered and dressed, then glanced at her nightstand and saw Catra’s gloves sitting neatly, waiting to be worn. A goofy grin sprung to her lips. She shoved her feet into her boots and grabbed the gloves. Before sliding her fingers in them, she raised them to her nose and inhaled deeply. Although she’d been wearing them the last two days, she could still smell Catra in them and Adora was filled with calm. She put them on and headed out of her quarters, but not before slipping Catra’s communicator in a side pocket of her cargo pants. She refused to go anywhere without it, partially for fear of it being discovered, but mostly because it made her feel closer to Catra.

After grabbing a quick breakfast in the mess, she headed off the _Lunarium_ and to the Rep Force wing of Bright Moon Station. A short while later, she found her way to Commander Mara’s office and waited patiently while Mara finished a meeting. It seemed like she was always in meetings. In the few short minutes of waiting, her mind drifted so far into thoughts of Catra that she jumped when the office door opened and out strode none other than President Angella.

“M-Madam President!” she exclaimed, leaping to her feet.

President Angella gave Adora a calculating look, though her demeanor wasn’t entirely unkind. "I understand you’re on a mission that’s been taking you outside Etherian space. If I weren’t so curious about what the Horde is up to, I’d be furious that you’re taking Glimmer with you.”

“Y-yes ma’am,” Adora replied, unsure what else to say.

“You are responsible for her, Captain Adora. Don’t forget that,” President Angella said then strode away before Adora could come up with a response.

She walked rather shakily into Mara’s office and closed the door.

“Adora!” Mara said with a smile. “I read your report; color me impressed. You not only found out what planet they’re after, but you have a map to it and you have the next step in discovering its location.”

Adora sat down. “I had help. I didn’t include it in the report because this information needs to be off the record.”

“Oh?” Mara said, concern rippling through her eyes.

“I ran into a . . . someone I knew in the Horde at the library of all places. She’s agreed to be my C.I. She’s the one who told me about the planet’s name,” Adora answered.

“Are you sure that’s wise?” Mara asked. “How do you know you didn’t just tip your hand about the investigation?”

Adora subconsciously fidgeted with her new gloves. “I’ve known her most of my life. I know her tell when she’s lying, and she wasn’t. There’s someone—her, well, _our_ , mentor—whom she is keen to stop from getting her hands on whatever the Horde’s after. We both know nothing good will come out of the Horde having access to some unknown power, especially if it is a weapon. Hordak is power hungry and loves conflict. Put a massive cache of weapons in his hands and there’s no telling what he’d do.”

“That’s who you left behind in the Horde, isn’t it—your C.I.?” Mara asked. “The one you’ve been trying to help get out?” Adora looked up, a stab of fear jetting through her, but Mara’s eyes were warm, tender even.

Adora looked back down, a soft flush creeping into her face. “Yes,” she answered quietly. She then saw Mara’s eyes drift down to Adora’s gloved hands and realization entered them.

“Ah. I understand,” Mara said with a kind smile. “I am happy for you, Adora. And I can see in your face the happiness she brings you. Your entire countenance feels more at ease since you found her again. But as your Commander, I must caution you. It is a very dangerous and delicate matter, being in love with a C.I. She will be in constant peril so long as she remains your informant. Are you sure you’re prepared to deal with the consequences of that?”

“I don’t have a choice. She demanded it of me, and I owe her this. At very _least_ I owe her this,” Adora answered, suddenly fighting back a wave of emotion. How did Mara always _know_? “But she’s also the smartest, cleverest person I’ve ever met, and she certainly knows how to take care of herself. If anything, it’s the Horde that should be worried.”

Mara chuckled. “All right, Captain. But please talk to me if you need help, advice, or even reassurance. This will not be as easy as you might think, but know you have help. You’re not alone, Adora.”

The swell of emotion returned in Adora’s chest. “Thank you, Commander.”

* * *

_“Mmmf, Adora . . .!”_

_Adora’s lips ghosted along Catra’s neck, cheek, and chin, then settled near her ear. “I love you, Catra,” she whispered, her voice filled with so much tenderness it sent electricity shooting through her entire being. Adora’s warmth permeated to her core and gods she missed that heat. Adora always radiated heat like the sun and Catra just wanted to bask in it forever._

_One of Adora’s fingers suddenly plunged inside Catra and she hissed in a sharp breath of pleasure and surprise. She was currently straddling Adora on her bed with her legs and tail wrapped tightly around her Rep Captain’s waist. Adora’s other hand slid up Catra’s back, offering her stability as she drove her hips down again and again, demanding Adora go deeper each time. Their lips clashed like lightning in a burning kiss that had Catra both whimpering and purring all at once. Catra could feel herself hovering on the edge of a cliff on which she’d been standing for what felt like eternity. One hand clung to Adora’s shoulder and the other slid up to entangled in Adora’s long hair, now messy and sexy from Catra’s constant clinging to it._

_“Adora. . .”_

_She was close, so painfully close. . ._

“Catra!”

Catra leapt up so hard that she fell off the bed with a squeak of dismay.

“Catra?”

There was that damn voice again. “What?!” she shouted back at the door.

“Why is your door locked?” the voice—whom she recognized as Shadow Weaver’s—demanded. “Let me in. We’re coming up on Krytis. Come to the bridge, now.”

Catra growled and rose to her feet. “There are things called communicators, Shadow Weaver! Fuck. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

“Well, hurry. Hordak and Khor are waiting!”

“Yeah, I heard you!” Catra shot back. She heard Shadow Weaver’s soft footsteps fade down the hall and felt a moment of satisfaction that she got the last word. She rubbed her face in frustration then began changing into her Horde uniform. She was already beginning to regret not taking Adora up on her offer. Ever since the Horde started looking into Arxia, Shadow Weaver had been acutely more controlling than ever, and it was grating on Catra’s last nerve. And Catra didn’t have an abundance of nerves to spare.

Once she finished dressing, she sat down on the edge of the bed and grabbed the golden wings Adora had given her from her nightstand. She wanted to wear the pin openly, but she knew Shadow Weaver would hone right in on it. She instead slipped it into her pocket and made her way to the bridge.

Krytis loomed in the viewport as they sped towards it, but Catra was having a hard time focusing on anything at the moment. She still felt flushed and distracted from that damn dream. Gods, that _dream_. She wanted that dream to be reality so much it hurt. For far longer than five years she’d yearned to hear Adora say those three little words, to feel her body in that way. For the first time in her life it felt like it was a possibility. She had, and she was terrified to even admit it to herself, _hope_ in their future together. That was no ordinary kiss. That was the kiss of two people who had been mutually yearning, pining, longing for each other. Catra swallowed back a wave of emotion, careful to keep her expression neutral.

“Brother, initial scans of the planet indicate there are significant signs of civilization,” Khor said happily, as if this were the best news he’d ever heard in his life.

Catra rolled her eyes. “What exactly is it we’re looking for?” she demanded, looking at Shadow Weaver. “You’ve been nothing but secretive with me since we started this whole damn witch hunt.”

“The people who established this galaxy long before us were technological masters,” Hordak replied, his hand tightening around a First Ones journal they’d picked up on Thaymor. “We don’t know what caused the First Ones mass extinction, but we do know they left behind endless, untapped, uncharted technology. And I want it.”

“Oh great. So we’re looking for a bunch of old junk that killed a bunch of dead aliens. Got it,” Catra said caustically.

“Don’t be petulant!” Shadow Weaver snapped.

“Life forms?” Catra asked Khor, ignoring Shadow Weaver.

Khor pressed some buttons on the computer interface. “Many! Though most appear to be living outside the ruins. How interesting! Perhaps the ruins are haunted. This is so exciting.”

A short time later they landed the _Watchtower_ on the outskirts of one of the massive, ancient cities and filed out of the ship. A small detail was left behind and the rest, a party of twenty including herself, Hordak, Khor, and Shadow Weaver, made for the city.

Catra held out her scanner and was surprised to find energy readings. “Damn. There’s still functioning tech in this place. Looks like about five klicks from here is the biggest energy reading.”

The party headed in the direction she indicated, though she noticed everyone seemed on edge. All the Horde mercs in full armor were all tightly gripping their guns as though they expected boogey men would jump out at them at any moment.

They continued to walk the empty streets for quite some time, and Catra had the strange feeling they were being watched. She kept checking her scanner for life signs, but it only showed the Horde party. She looked up at the ruins surrounding them, amazed they hadn’t been buried by the hand of time. They were certainly weatherworn and there was significant plant growth, but the buildings still looked more or less structurally sound.

“There,” Shadow Weaver said, interrupting Catra’s thoughts. Shadow Weaver pointed to a huge building to their right. “I’m picking up stronger energy readings from there.”

Catra pulled out her communicator, pretending to look busy with something. Making sure the screen was hidden from anyone’s view, she messaged Adora her current coordinates on Krytis in a short message that read: ‘ _Found Something. We’re still here. I’ll update you when I have more.’_

The party entered the building Shadow Weaver indicated and quickly fanned out to search for energy signals and set up computer stations. The whole process, like all things of an archeological nature, was tedious and Catra soon found she was bored. She sauntered from the building in search of more interesting things to find. Most of the buildings appeared long empty, though strangely none looked like they were looted and she saw no evidence that any scavengers had moved into the city. What about these ruins kept people from wanting to live here?

Catra’s communicator beeped at her and she pulled it quickly from her pocket. Adora had replied, _‘We’re already on Krytis, about 200 klicks from your location. Found anything interesting yet? Cuz all I’ve found is a bunch of ruins.’_

A grin tugged at Catra’s lips as she replied, _‘We’re on a planet of ruins, dummy. What were you expecting?’_

While Catra waited for a response, a picture came through. She felt her heart speed up when she saw it. Adora had sent a picture of herself, her gloved hands forming a heart shape over her heart, that insufferably goofy grin plastered on her beautiful face. Then another message came through after the picture that said, _‘I may be a dummy, but I’m_ your _dummy.’_

Catra’s hand fluttered to her mouth. _Mine_. . . she thought, her heart skipping several beats. Adora was _hers_. She thought carefully about her response for a few moments then wrote, _‘Careful. I have a reputation for being possessive.’_

Catra’s heart pounded waiting for the response. When it did come through, she had to swallow back a swell of emotion. _‘Possess me. I’m yours. It’s you, Catra. It always has been. I’ve never even considered the possibility of someone else these last five years. Possess me, Catra.’_

She was contemplating her reply when she suddenly became aware she was being followed. Upon doing a quick glance of the area, she realized she was surrounded. She typed a quick response to Adora saying, _‘Shit. Being hunted by something. Gotta go.’_

She lowered the communicator, irritated that whoever was here was interrupting Adora time. She then switched on the Horde comm in her ear.

“Heads up, I think there are scavengers around. Be on alert,” she said.

“Where are you?” Shadow Weavers voice came over the comm, her tone far more accusatory than concerned.

“I’m just looking around. If you haven’t noticed, I’m kind of good at finding things that are useful, considering we wouldn’t even be here if it weren’t for me. I’m just going to take care of these assholes following me and I’ll meet back at your location.”

She flipped off the comm and looked around. “Do any of you know where I can find any maps of the universe?”

She heard a skittering of feet and what sounded like something mechanical and counted multiple pairs of glowing eyes watching her from the shadows. Catra assessed her surroundings and escaped routes with a flick of her eyes, then fingered the stun blade in her thigh holster.

“Come and get it!” she yelled.

As if on cue, three figures leapt out of hiding and fired on her with guns shooting massive green laser blasts. She leapt in the air, narrowly missing being shot, and landed on the ground with a graceful summersault, then launched herself at the nearest attacker. She stabbed it with her stun blade to find that it wasn’t an organic life form, but an advanced robot of some kind. When her stun blade made contact with it, sparks shot out from the contact point, and with a very dramatic amount malfunctioning, the bot collapsed in a heap.

“What the. . .?” she muttered but then yelped in pain when a laser shot graced her side. She leapt behind the nearest wall, narrowly avoiding several more shots. Suddenly deafening alarms started screeching all around her; not just the building where she had taken cover, but all over the city. Catra scrambled to a new hiding spot as a dozen or more bots converged on the building she was hiding in. She flipped on the comm in her ear again.

“Hordak, get out of the city! I just found out why no one lives here. The First Ones must have left security systems behind, and we’re intruders!”

“Where are you? I’ll send a squad to come get you,” Hordak replied, but Catra cut him off.

“No! Just get out of the city; I’ll meet you back at the ship when I can!”

She ripped the earpiece out of her ear so she could focus on the attacking bots. She scampered down a large hall and veered sharply when she found a staircase. Leaping up to the next level in three huge bounds, and at the top she narrowly missed being shot at another awaiting bot. Though she dodged just in time, what would have been a clean headshot grazed her cheek and she hissed in pain. Lashing out in anger, she tore her claws into its chest, then grabbed onto the laser gun attached to its arm. In one smooth motion, she flipped the gun around and blasted it in the chest. It crumpled to the ground in a shower of sparks. As quickly as time would allow, she looked it over, searching for a control chip or motherboard. She tore off several metal plates before finding what she needed, then ripped out what she hoped was a control crystal. She shoved in in a side pocked then ran down a nearby hallway to a window. When she glanced cautiously out the window, she saw the ground below was now swarming with hundreds of the bots, and she could hear more pounding up the stairs behind her. The alarms were still screeching so loudly she could barely think, barely breathe. Panic started settling in as she realized she’d just trapped herself. As bots started flooding around the hallway, she blasted with the stolen laser gun wildly, dropping at least half a dozen of them within seconds. The glass shattered behind her as laser blasts meant for her zoomed by and she cried out as a piece buried itself in her arm.

New movement down the street suddenly caught her eye, a large cloud of dust moving towards her location. A few moments later, a large armored skiff came into view, firing upon the bots and running over the ones it missed. She half expected to see Khor, but her heart leapt into her throat when she saw the driver.

It was Adora.

Of course. Of course it was Adora. It made no sense how she’d found her here, but the skiff skidded to a halt below her on the ground.

“Catra!” Adora called up to her, holding a hand up to her. “Come on, let’s go!”

Firing a few more shots behind her, she jumped up on the window ledge and leapt off before she could think the better of it. She twisted mid-air and shot three more bots before twisting back around. She cried out when yet another shot hit her side mid-fall, throwing off her trajectory for a safe landing. She instead collided violently with Adora, and she felt a sickening crunch in Adora’s arm as they crashed to the floor of the skiff. As soon as they stopped sliding, Adora scrambled back to her feet and to the controls. The skiff lurched into motion and Catra latched onto the railing to keep herself from slamming into the back wall of the skiff. She felt them run over several dozen more bots before the screeching alarms finally began to fade. It was only until neither of them could hear anything but the roar of the skiff that they were able to take a breath and look at each other. Catra was sure she looked quite a bloody sight, and Adora hadn’t fared much better. She was holding her arm and she was covered and bruises. And yet she still gave Catra that adorable, goofy grin.

“Hi,” Adora said weakly.

Catra couldn’t help but grin. “Hey, Adora.”


	8. Healing

[Ten minutes earlier]

_‘Possess me, Catra.’_

If Adora weren’t so terrified of what Catra might respond to her last message, she might have been proud of how very brazen it was. She held her breath. Just as she thought she might pass out from panicking, a message finally came, _‘Shit. Being hunted by something. Gotta go.’_

It took a moment to register what Catra meant, but then a whole new panic set in. Catra was in trouble. She of course knew Catra could take care of herself, but still. Without pausing to think more on it, she ran to find Entrapta. The _Lunarium_ crew, like Catra’s crew, were on Krytis too, though a few hundred klicks away. They had found a small First Ones outpost tower that they chose to search, partially to avoid the Horde, but also to help keep Entrapta on task. Adora skidded to a halt in front of her engineer who was currently fiddling with a First Ones computer interface.

“Entrapta, can you use this to find another communicator like it? Or track the last known location of the message sent from the other communicator that messaged this one?” she asked, shoving the communicator in front of Entrapta.

The engineer lifted her bug-like welding helmet and peered at it. “Ooooh I haven’t see one of these babies in a while,” she said, grabbing it from Adora. Her fingers flew over the interface with alarming speed. “I used to have a few, but Mara kept taking them away from me because they’re illegal,” she blabbered. “I suppose it makes sense. Crazy invasive tech if you know how to use it.”

Entrapta didn’t particularly seem to care it was illegal, though Adora felt a pang of guilt.

“Done!” Entrapta declared, handing it back to her. “It now shows the live location of the other device you’ve been in contact with.”

“Thanks,” she said and turned to run off but ran right into Glimmer instead.

“Captain! Where are you going? And what’s illegal?”

“I don’t have time to explain. My C.I. is in trouble and I need to help her!” Adora said, already running in the direction of the skiffs they had driven to the tower. Glimmer ran after her.

“ _What?_ You have a C.I. in the Horde? Since when? And let me come with you; I can help.”

Adora leapt on one of the Rep-issue, armored skiffs and flipped on the engine. “I’m sorry, I have to go alone. No one can know who my C.I. is. The more people who do, the more at risk she’s in. I’ll be fine. Keep working on finding information about Arxia. I’ll be back as soon as she’s safe. You have the bridge, First Officer Glimmer!”

With that she launched the skiff off in the direction of Catra’s signal. She pushed the skiff to the full speed of which it was capable, kicking up a hurricane of dust behind her. All she could think of was getting to Catra, nothing else mattered. As she approached the city limits, she saw the _Watchtower_ in the distance and veered sharply away from it, giving the area where the rest of the Horde was wide birth so they wouldn’t spot her. A minute or so later, she heard the shrieking of alarms filling the air, drowning out even the sound of the skiff’s roaring engine. She blazed down a side street, avoiding the life signs she saw on her scanner, then veered back to the main road when she was a safe distance past them. Suddenly what looked like bi-pedal bots of some kind were swarming the streets, but she didn’t stop or falter for even a second. She flipped on the skiff’s shields and plowed through them like bowling pins. She grew closer and closer to Catra’s signal until she knew she should be able to see her and skidded the skiff to a halt. Just then a glass window shattered on the second floor of a building to her right and she saw Catra step onto the ledge of the window.

“Catra!” she shouted and held up her arms. “Come on, let’s go!”

To her surprise, Catra actually leapt from the window and down towards her. The next moment seemed to slow time itself. She watched helplessly as Catra was shot by a laser blast mid-air by a bot in the building behind her. She twisted in the air and grabbed her side in pain, no longer focusing on how she was going to land. Adora braced herself and grabbed onto Catra as they collided. Inertia knocked them both to the floor of the skiff, and Adora felt a searing pain in her arm when it made contact with the ground. Ignoring it, she scrambled to her feet and slammed on the skiff’s accelerator. She drove until they could no longer hear the screech of alarms from the city before finally pulling off to the side of the road on the edge of what looked like a massive jungle. She turned to check on Catra, who was crouched behind her holding onto the skiff’s railing. Adora felt a smile pull at her lips.

“Hi,” she said. She realized how lame that must have sounded but decided to stick by it.

She saw an all-too familiar exasperated grin enter Catra’s face. “Hey, Adora.”

Catra clutched at her side with a strained grunt, and Adora rushed to her. After looking over her wounds, the Rep Captain tore open a compartment cover on the floor of the skiff and withdrew a med-kit which was standard-issue on all Rep vehicles. She’d never been so grateful for emergency supplies.

She settled down next to Catra and dug in the kit for med-gel. Catra leaned against one of the rails of the skiff and let out a weak cough. “Is there water in that thing?” she asked, her voice sounding raw.

Adora withdrew a bottle of water and opened it. She offered it to Catra who drank deeply from it while Adora prepped the medi-gel. She slid on a pair of medical gloves (made of a special bacteria-killing material) and dipped a couple of fingers in the medi-gel.

Catra’s eyes, though glazed with pain, glanced around them. “Where are we?”

“The jungle,” Adora replied and gently applied the gel to a gash in Catra’s side.

Catra hissed in a gasp of pain, but relaxed a little after the numbing agent in the medi-gel began to soothe her wound. Adora carefully applied the medi-gel to all of Catra’s wounds then covered them in bandages. Fortunately she’d learned basic first aid at the Rep Acadamy, so they actually looked pretty good when she was done. She finished with a small bandage on Catra’s cheek, but her fingers lingered there after she was done, unwilling to pull away. She gently stroked Catra’s cheek, gazing into those beautiful mismatched eyes. Those eyes gazed back with what, if Adora wasn’t mistaken, looked like a mixture of gratitude, mild exasperation, and a deep fondness.

“You really shouldn’t have come,” Catra chided, though her tone was tender. “Someone from the Horde might have seen you.”

“I avoided them,” Adora answered. The adrenaline that had been pumping through her veins seemed to run out at that moment, forcing her to remember her injured arm. She cried out and clutched it, then gritted her teeth to stop herself from crying out further. Catra surged forward and grabbed the med-kit, digging into it until she found an arm brace.

“Let me set it for you,” Catra commanded softly. Adora leaned back against the rail and closed her eyes. Catra withdrew a small medi-gel needle and injected Adora’s arm. She felt the pain in her arm subside to a dull ache almost immediately and exhaled a small sigh of relief. Catra then slid the device up Adora’s arm, and once it was in position, activated it. It expanded into what looked more or less like a brace and tightened on her arm until she heard an uncomfortably loud _crack_. Mercifully, the medi-gel flowing through her prevented her from feeling that. The device loosened its grip and adjusted to a form-fitting brace.

“Thank you,” Adora said, giving Catra a shy smile. She didn’t know why she was feeling shy, but she didn’t analyze it too much because suddenly Catra curled into her lap and wrapped herself around Adora in both a protective and needy embrace. Adora enclosed Catra in her arms and nuzzled into Catra’s messy short hair, breathing her in. It had only been a few days since their last rendezvous in the library, and already she had missed her so much it ached. She yet again wondered what she left behind, and how she’d managed five years without her. She felt like she’d been living in a dark fog for the past five years, wasting her life. She now felt a lightness in her chest, like a huge weight had been lifted she didn’t know she was carrying.

After holding each other like this for an undetermined amount of time, Catra shifted and kissed Adora’s cheek.

“Thank you,” she whispered, kissing Adora’s cheek again. “For coming for me. Even if it was an incredibly stupid thing to do.”

“Hey,” Adora pouted, though she didn’t dare move. She couldn’t remember Catra ever thanking her for anything. She also never used to get this kind of affection from Catra. Although Catra used to be quite demanding of attention and affection, she was always quite guarded about giving it. Apparently absence really did make the heart grow fonder.

“Adora,” Catra murmured against her check, kissing it again.

Adora swallowed, her throat suddenly feeling dry with nerves. “Hmm?” she managed.

Catra slid a hand up Adora’s chest and neck, stopping on her cheek. Adora met her pirate’s mismatched eyes which were heavy with flirtation. “Kiss me, Adora,” she purred.

Adora’s heart revved up to about 130 beats a second and she quite happily did as she was told. Unlike their first kiss, it started out more restrained, tender, and exploratory. Granted, both of them were injured and currently lacked the energy of their last kiss. Despite this, it didn’t take long for it to become heated when Catra’s demanding tongue worked past Adora’s lips. She longed to be kissing Catra somewhere romantic, like a fancy hotel room or some exotic beach somewhere on a tropical planet. They really needed to work on their rendezvous places. And _gods_ those lips were so soft and persistent and the deeper the kiss became, the harder it was for Adora to focus on the fact that they both had places to be.

Thinking about the theoretical future made Adora focus back in on the present and their current predicament. She reluctantly pulled back from their kiss, which was already teetering dangerously close to a repeat of the library.

“How are you going to explain your escape to Shadow Weaver and Hordak?” she asked, pressing her forehead to Catra’s. Her voice sounded heavy and breathless in her own ears, and she could tell she was flushed.

Catra’s tail twitched in frustration. “I don’t know. I’ll probably just tell her I managed to escape into the jungle. Speaking of which, I should have one of them pick me up, assuming they haven’t left me here to rot.” She pulled her communicator from her pocket and looked it over. “Well it’s not broken. That’s a good sign.”

She flipped it on and sent a message to Khor that read, _‘I escaped the killer bots but had to hide in the jungle. In need of extraction. Here are my coordinates.’_

A few seconds later he replied, _‘Oh my way!’_

Adora exhaled a regretful sigh. “I suppose I should move the skiff. I honestly don’t think Wrong Hordak would tell Shadow Weaver I’m here, but he’s also terrible with secrets, if memory serves.”

Catra sighed also. “I don’t want you to go.”

The longing in Catra’s voice broke Adora’s heart. “You know, we could still run away together,” she said with a grin.

Catra smacked her chest playfully. “As much as that would solve future me’s problems, present me is more convinced than ever that whatever is on Arxia is dangerous and should never fall into Shadow Weaver’s clutches. We need to destroy it, Adora. Whatever ‘it’ is.”

“All right fine,” Adora pouted. “But don’t say I didn’t offer.”

Just then they heard the distant roar of a skiff’s engines in what they assumed was Khor coming to pick Catra up. Adora was about to stand but Catra held her back.

“When will I see you again?” Catra asked, worry rippling through those beautiful eyes.

“I-I don’t know,” Adora answered honestly.

Catra withdrew what looked like a control crystal of some sort from one of her pockets. “I got this from one of the murder bots. I’m guessing they’re all on a network, thus why they all attacked at once. Maybe your engineer can use it to hack into the network, and with any luck find the location of Arxia.”

Adora accepted it but didn’t pocket it. “I’m not sure I should take this. If you show up empty-handed, Shadow Weaver might get suspicious. You never show up empty-handed.”

Catra slid the control crystal into Adora’s pocket. “Let me worry about that.” She then used the closeness of the handoff to bring their lips together in a tender but passionate kiss that was far too short. She then leapt off the skiff and trotted to the road to meet up with Khor. Every time they met up with each other, it made it hard and harder to see Catra go. As Adora steered the skiff further from the road so as not to be spotted by Khor, she couldn’t help but feel she was making the same mistake all over again: leaving Catra behind.


	9. Best Laid Plans. . .

Despite Catra’s best efforts to slow Hordak and Shadow Weaver down from finding any information about Arxia, they had collected too much on Krytis before being chased out of the city by the murder bots. After Khor picked her up, they had gone back to the _Watchtower_ only to find Hordak and the others had secured an entire bot, though they weren’t without wounds of their own. On the way back to Horde Prime Station, though questioned by Shadow Weaver what happened and where Catra got her bandages, Catra skillfully avoided telling too much, and said she found a med-kit in one of the abandoned buildings. Though she could tell Shadow Weaver wasn’t entirely satisfied, she seemed to more or less accept it. After reviewing the information they’d found, Catra, Shadow Weaver, Hordak, and Khor were currently going over things in the war room of Horde Prime Station.

“We found it, Brother!” Khor exclaimed happily from his seat in the war room. “Though it is a very long trip, and once we arrive we’ll have to somehow navigate the nebula surrounding it. According to the First Ones records, the nebula in which Arxia rests is a mass of ice and fire and storms and chaos. We shall need to find a pilot who can navigate it, or one who has navigated it before.”

“If someone knew how to navigate the nebula, why would they tell us how to get through it?” Catra demanded. “And why would they tell us how to get to Arxia if it’s supposedly of such great value that we’re willing to risk our necks to get to it?”

“We won’t find someone who has been there, but we know of one pilot who can get us through. She’s the best pilot in the known universe,” Shadow Weaver said. “But we must be cautious how we approach her. If she suspects there’s something worth having, she will assuredly take it.”

“I’ve already set up a meeting with her in neutral ground—Salineas Station,” Hordak said. “Our meeting is in one week. We’re leaving today, in two hours. I want to get there early to ensure no trap is set for us.”

“What? Why?” Catra asked.

“She works for the Hunters,” Shadow Weaver said.

Catra’s eyes widened. Hunters, a rival pirate faction of the Horde, were smaller and less organized, but they made up for it with unpredictability and violence. Hunters were so violent, Etheria had a “shoot on sight” regulation in place if they entered Etherian space, and Catra didn’t blame them. The Horde had a similar rule, only their rule was “kill on sight.” The Etherian Protectors tended to show at least some restraint. The Horde had no such qualms.

“Great. So the plan is to make a deal with the least trustworthy pirate faction in the known universe? Do you really think they won’t double cross us at the first chance they get?” Catra demanded.

“That’s why you’re coming,” Shadow Weaver said. “You’ve always had an eye for that sort of thing.”

Catra’s eyes narrowed at Shadow Weaver’s accusatory tone. “What’s that supposed to mean? What the hell have I ever done that makes you always question my loyalty to the Horde?”

Shadow Weaver’s eyes also narrowed behind her mask. “I meant nothing by it, child. I simply meant you are clever.”

“Enough, you two. Meet back on the _Watchtower_ in two hours to ship out. Dismissed,” Hordak snapped.

Catra growled and stormed out of the war room before Shadow Weaver could say anything else that might cause Catra to insight a riot. She was almost to her quarters when she realized Khor had followed her to the crew quarters of Horde Prime Station.

“Why are you following me, Khor?” she snarled.

His eyes widened in surprise. “Oh . . . I was just going to my quarters to shower. I got terribly sweaty in the war room. Arguments make me nervous.”

“Oh,” Catra muttered. “Sorry.”

Khor fidgeted with his hands. “Are you all right? Shadow Weaver. . .” he hesitated. “Shadow Weaver was unkind to you. And I do not understand why. You are the best smuggler here. All your missions are the most successful with the lowest incidents of violence or casualties. You are the cleverest pirate I know.”

Catra looked away. “Yeah, well, tell that to Shadow Weaver.”

“But I have. I told her you have the most successful missions and the best stats for bringing in cargo. The next best smuggler in the Horde isn’t even close to your numbers. But, more than that, you’re Catra.”

Catra felt a flash of irritation. “Why do you like me, Khor? I’ve never been good or nice to you. I don’t deserve your friendship.”

Khor fidgeted with his hands even more. “I-I’m not supposed to tell you.”

Catra blinked. “What? What does that mean? What aren’t you supposed to tell me?”

“Oh, um. . . I promised not to tell you. She made me promise not to tell you that she asked me to look out for you before she left.” He was now sweating immensely from his brow.

“Before who left, what are you. . . oh.” Catra exhaled a small laugh, though it was more to contain a wave of too many conflicting emotions. “Adora.”

“I can neither confirm nor deny anything. No one said anything. There’s nothing to see here.”

“Can you just. . . can you tell me what she said?” Catra asked softly, avoiding his eyes.

“She. . . she said to please look out for you and to be your friend. She thought you never wanted to see her again.”

“She said that?” Catra asked. She tried again to recall their last fight before Adora left. Then she remembered. She felt a wave of guilt, followed by annoyance that Adora took her literally. She remembered being angry (which, admittedly, she was in much better control of now that she was older) and she had yelled at Adora after Adora asked her to leave the Horde with her to join the Rep Academy. She then told Adora, in her anger, that she never wanted to see her again. But of course what she really wanted was for Adora to see that Catra was hurting and wanted attention and felt insecure. But alas. Adora took her words literally. Catra supposed that was a good thing, though. She knew all too well that she had the makings to be every bit as manipulative and calculating as Shadow Weaver, but she’d be damned if she was going to be anything like Shadow Weaver.

“I miss Adora,” Khor sighed sadly. “Well, I’d better get ready.”

Catra watched him leave and for the first time felt a wave of affection for him. “Khor?”

He paused and looked back, his kind eyes hopeful. “Yes?”

“I know you broke your promise, but. . . thank you.”

His whole face lit up like an Etherian sunrise.

Shaking her head in amusement, Catra entered her quarters and looked around. It was as she had left it, a slightly messy unmade bed and some clothes scattered about that she didn’t feel like putting away. She pulled out her communicator and sent Adora a message that said, _‘Can you talk? Or are you still on Krytis?’_

She only had to wait a few short moments before the reply came, _‘We’re on our way back to Bright Moon Station. We got the map to Arxia! Thank you so much for that control crystal. I’m in my quarters if you want to talk face to face.’_

Upon reading the message, Catra laid down on her stomach on her bed and propped the comm against her pillow, then contacted her Rep Captain. A moment later, Adora’s beautiful smiling face appeared in the display.

“Hello, beautiful,” Adora greeted her.

“Hey, Adora,” Catra replied, failing to stop a smile from entering her own lips. Her Rep Captain had an annoying way of bringing that out in her. She glanced behind Adora and saw she too was lying on her stomach on her bed. “Are those your captain’s quarters? I wanna see!”

“Oh, sure,” Adora replied and held up the comm. The room was surprisingly clean and nice looking for a Rep ship, though it was sparse and undecorated. Adora set the comm back down and looked at Catra’s room. “Still have the same room at Horde Prime Station, or did Hordak finally give you an upgrade?”

“Hordak offered, but the new quarters weren’t any better, honestly,” Catra replied. “This one has a better view of the Fright Zone nebula.”

“I remember that view,” Adora said and her eyes glazed as she delved into memories. “I used to look out the viewport on nights when you fell asleep before me. You were so warm and that station so cold. Sometimes I thought there was nothing Shadow Weaver could do to us on those nights. I felt so calm with your body against mine. I used to fight sleep to make it all last longer."

Sadness filled Catra and she looked away. “I want that back, Adora,” she admitted softly, though it was hard to do so. Ever since Adora left she’d had a much harder time expressing or admitting to emotions.

“Me too.”

Catra looked back and saw tears had filled Adora’s blue eyes. “Do you ever wonder where we’d be if you had stayed?” Catra asked.

“All the time,” Adora answered. “Ever wonder where we’d be if you came with me?”

“Happier,” Catra replied. “Though I imagine I would have been kicked out of the Rep Academy a week in.”

They both giggled softly. “If not a smuggler, what would you be? What do you want, Catra?”

Catra’s eyes widened in surprise. She’d never been asked that before. She’d thought often about what she would do if she left the Horde, but her dreams always felt so far away, so impossible. “I think. . . I’ve always thought it would be cool to be an explorer. There’s so much of the universe that’s uncharted and unknown, and that’s really amazing. I want to see it all.”

When Catra looked back into Adora’s eyes, she could practically see stars in them they looked so filled with hope and happiness and . . . did Catra dare hope it was love?

“When this is over, let’s explore the universe together, Catra. Co-captains of our own ship, following a path of our choosing for once.”

A swell of emotion hit Catra so hard she couldn’t stop tears from coming to her eyes. “And how exactly do you plan on getting a ship for this adventure of ours?” she managed, using sheer practicality to muscle through her emotion.

“I mean I hear you’re a pretty good pirate and the Horde has a surplus of pretty awesome ships,” Adora said with a smirk.

“Oh, that’s your answer? Steal a ship from the Horde? You’re so ridiculous,” Catra exhaled a small laugh. Despite thinking it was a terrible idea, she loved Adora so much for it. She felt her heart flutter at the mere thought of loving Adora. Could this be happening? Was Adora really back in her life, offering to run away together? Was this all some terrible dream from which she was going to wake only to find out it wasn’t real?

“I mean we could try and steal a Rep ship. I’m game if you are,” Adora said with a playful grin.

“Really? You’d really steal from the Rep Force for me, for. . . us?” Catra asked. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. How much did Adora really care for her that she was willing to steal from the Rep Force?

“I told you, I’m not leaving you again, Catra. Never again. Whatever it takes,” Adora said, and there was a finality in her voice that sent chills up Catra’s spine.

“In the interest of not burning all bridges within the Etherian Republic, it is probably wiser to take a ship from the Horde. If we end up taking a ship at all. I’m not entirely sold on this plan,” Catra chided, but gently.

Adora rested her chin in her hands and gazed at Catra with such tenderness that Catra yearned for them to be together again with such intensity it was painful. “You’re so beautiful. I love your freckles.”

Catra blushed so furiously that she had to pretend to cough to hide it. “So anyway, the Horde has a plan. The nebula in which Arxia rests is apparently a death trap. We’re going to hire the best pilot in the known galaxy to help us navigate it. We’re meeting up with the pilot in a week to discuss the terms on Salineas Station. If you get there first, you might be able to convince the pilot before we do. That will slow Shadow Weaver down. I’m sending you the information now.”

“Will you be on Salineas Station for a week?” Adora asked.

“Yeah, Hordak wanted to get there early because the pilot currently works for Hunters. He doesn’t want any surprises.”

“Hunters?” Adora asked, concern rippling through her brow. “Who the hell thought working with Hunters was a good idea?”

“I don’t know, it was probably Shadow Weaver’s brilliant idea,” Catra replied with no modicum of annoyance.

“So you’ll be at Salineas for a week with nothing to do?”

“I guess so. My missions are always so fucking great.”

“Sooo you’ll have some free time? Can we meet up there? If I get there around the same time as you, we’ll have a whole week together! Salineas is huge, if I just stay in a different wing than the Horde, we won’t have to worry about running into Shadow Weaver.”

Catra hadn’t thought of that. “Okay,” she said with a grin.

They spent the rest of Catra’s free time coordinating secret meeting times and locations, and for the first time in a very long time, Catra felt happy and excited about something. It was a wonderful feeling, and in quite contrast to what she’d been feeling for the past five years. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know about y'all, but I freaking loved Wrong Hordak so much in the series. He was the second best thing that happened in season 5.


	10. Mermista's Favor

“What do you mean you have to go back to Salineas Station alone?” Glimmer demanded, practically shouting.

Adora pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. “Look, unless we can somehow hide the fact that this is a Rep Force ship, what choice do we have? We only have a week until the Horde has their meeting with the Hunter pilot.”

“But why do we even need to be there for that?” Bow asked.

“Because we’re going to try and counter the Horde’s offer. President Angella has already given us the go-ahead and the funding,” Adora replied. “If all goes well, we’ll get the pilot to take us instead.”

“Why don’t we just go undercover as a new pirate faction?” Entrapta asked, startling everyone. They all looked at her. “What? I could change all the Rep symbols on the ship. Me and Emily could get it done in a couple of hours. Then we could all go to Salineas. Right?”

All the officers in the mess looked to Adora. She sighed. “I really don’t think having a bunch of us there with help the situation.”

“Yes, but _Hunters_ will be there. Who’s going to watch your back if things go south with them?” Bow demanded.

That was a valid point, one Adora had been thinking about a lot, but more wondering who would look out for Catra. “All right, fine. We’ll have Commander Mara settle this.” Adora went to the comm station in the mess hall and called their commander, hoping she’d be able to accept an impromptu communique. A few seconds later, the lovely face of Mara appeared in the screen and gave them a warm smile.

“Well hello, _Lunarium_ crew,” she said.

“Commander,” Adora said. “We need orders. My insubordinate crew seems to think they should all go to Salineas Station with me because there will be Hunters and the Horde on Salineas at the same time. I think the more people involved, the harder it is to maintain the cover, but this it’s your call.”

“I think you should take First Officer Glimmer and Lieutenant Bow on the station itself and leave everyone else aboard the ship or in the docking area ready for a quick getaway and to protect the ship from being stolen or raided. C.M.O. Perfuma should be on high alert in the med-bay. It’s too dangerous to go alone. I’ll have to agree with your crew.”

“Do we have a budget for making ourselves look like pirates, not Rep Officers?” Adora asked. “Mermista has a ‘no Reps’ rule on her station.”

“Sending money now to your discretionary funds account right now. Anything else?” Mara asked.

“No. And thank you, Commander,” Adora said.

“Well there you have it,” Glimmer declared once the comm screen turned off.

“Yeah, stop trying to have all the fun for yourself,” Bow said, crossing his arms with a pouty look.

Adora sighed. “I’m not. It’s just. . . this whole accursed mission was my idea and I feel like I’m putting you all in danger,” she admitted.

“We’re Protectors, Captain,” Bow said with a reassuring smile. “We all knew what we were getting ourselves into when we signed up. Danger comes with the territory. We’ve got your back.”

“Yeah!” Entrapta exclaimed. “And I can rig our docking station with explosives if the Horde or Hunters try anything!”

Everyone laughed. “You should definitely _not_ do that, but thank you everyone,” Adora said. “All right then. Let’s make this Rep ship into a pirate ship!”

“Ooh ooh, can I name our pirate faction?” Bow asked, positively brimming with excited hope.

“Not if it’s something lame,” Glimmer teased.

“What?” he demanded. “How dare you. I’ll have you know I am an excellent namer of things.”

“All right, let’s hear it,” Netossa said, folding her arms.

“I don’t see why we have to stay on the ship,” Scorpia said sadly. “I’ve never seen Salineas Station.”

“Because, and I say this with love, Scorpia, but you’re a terrible liar,” Netossa answered. “I’m not so sure you’d be the best undercover agent.”

“How about the Red Beards?” Bow said excitedly.

“Uh, that’s a terrible name. None of us have beards. Not even you,” Adora pointed out.

“Okay, okay. How about the Smuggler Squad?” he tried.

“You’re getting worse, Bow,” Glimmer said flatly.

“So mean,” he pouted. “Okay fine. How about the Space Wraiths?”

He was met with silence. Then, “I mean . . . Wraiths has a certain ring to it,” Glimmer said. “It makes us seem all shadowy and illusive and mysterious and dangerous.”

“All right, show of hands, who votes the Wraiths?” Adora asked.

Everyone raised their hands.

“Well there you have it,” Adora declared. “All right everyone, hop to it! Let’s make this ship a Wraith ship!”

*

It took the _Lunarium_ crew roughly half a day (with very little rest) to get their ship and outfits to look at least decently pirate-ish. Their colors were green and black, and the symbol they chose was a rather badass looking grim reaper with two neon green scythes crossing in front of it. They worked with a local uniform shop on Bright Moon Station to make them all matching outfits and some discreet armor built into the lining of their jackets. Adora felt significantly more badass than her last visit to Salineas, and the gloves Catra had given her added the perfect finishing touch.

“We look _good_ ,” Bow said, looking approvingly at himself in Adora’s mirror. She, Glimmer, and Bow were getting ready in Adora’s quarters. The _Lunarium_ had just docked at Salineas Station and they were preparing to leave to meet with Mermista. Unlike the rest of them, Bow had torn off the lower part of his shirt making it look more like a crop-top. Adora found it looked good on him, despite having reservations at first.

“All right, there are some important things to know about Mermista,” Adora said as she guided them from her quarters and towards the docking bay. “First, never make fun of Sea Hawk. She is very possessive of him and all of his large personality. Second, let me do the talking. She doesn’t like people, but I know her. And finally, she takes the pirate truce _very seriously._ If we end up in any conflict with the Horde or Hunters, be absolutely certain you do _not_ instigate it. I don’t care if one of those pirates insults every one of your friends and ancestors and family. Don’t. Start. A. Fight. Got it?”

“Aye, aye, Captain!” Bow chirped.

“Why are you looking at me when you say that?” Glimmer demanded.

Adora chuckled in reply.

A bit later the three of them found themselves in front of Mermista once again, which was a little strange, considering she hadn’t seen Mermista in years, and now she saw her twice in as many weeks.

“Adora, you’re back!” Sea Hawk said happily. “And sporting new colors, I see. Who are your lovely friends?”

“Decided to start my own pirate crew,” Adora answered. “This is my First Mate, Glimmer, and this is my pilot, Bow. We’re the Wraiths. And don’t worry; we won’t pick any fights with anyone on Salineas.”

“The Wraiths?” Mermista repeated, her tone the usual bored. “I feel like that name is trying just a little too hard.”

Adora could practically feel Bow’s pout and stifled a grin. “It’s a work in progress, we’re just starting out after all. So listen, can my friends hang out so we can discuss that ‘thing’ we talked about last time?”

Mermista raised an eyebrow. “Fine. But if they turn out to be sloppy drunks, they’re out of here,” she said. Sea Hawk started happily chatting with Bow and Glimmer about their outfits and all their future plans for the Wraiths as Mermista led Adora to a private area near a beautiful mermaid fountain. “So what’s up?”

“I am hoping you can arrange a meeting for me with the best pilot in the Hunters,” Adora said. “She’s coming here in a week to meet with the Horde. They need her to fly through the nebula surrounding that planet on the star map you gave me. The planet’s name is Arxia, and apparently the nebula surrounding it is incredibly dangerous and difficult to navigate.”

“Ooooh the plot thickens. Are you going to be the new pirate faction rivaling the Horde? Betraying old friends you used to run with? I’m so into this. Sure I’ll arrange a meet.”

“It gets better,” Adora said in a conspiratorial hushed tone. “There’s a forbidden romance.”

Mermista actually gasped and Adora almost laughed out loud. “Tell me more, I’m literally _dying_.”

“I might be maybe a tiny bit in love with someone in the Horde and I was hoping you could help me coordinate a secret rendezvous with her. My crew doesn’t know about us, and I can’t tell them just yet.”

“Oh my _gawd_ it’s Catra isn’t it? Tell me it’s Catra. If you say it’s someone else I will beat you senseless because you two have been in love for years and it’s about fucking time,” Mermista said, ending with a meaningful stare at Adora.

Adora felt herself go scarlet. “I mean it’s Catra, but it wasn’t _that_ obvious,” she muttered sheepishly.

Mermista blinked slowly. “Yeah, keep telling yourself that, honey. But whatever, I’m so into it I don’t care. I’m going to book you my best honeymoon suite, because I’m just that good of a friend. Just make sure when the mystery novel is written that you share all the juicy details. I want them all.”

Adora’s eyes widened and she could feel a blush threatening to creep into her cheeks. “Wait, you mean like. . . like . . .?”

“All. The. Details,” Mermista repeated. “Any mystery worth reading has some spicy fun.”

“Mermista, you perv!” Adora exclaimed, feeling herself go scarlet _again_. She was blushing a lot and it was getting annoying, damnit.

“Hey don’t shame me because I love love. And relax. If you get a good writer, they can fill in the blanks. You can literally just tell them, ‘and then we had hot sex in the hotel room.’ You can’t throw in a forbidden romance without adding a forbidden love scene. It’s just logic.”

Adora laughed and it had only a touch of hysteria. Just a touch. “What have I gotten myself into?” she asked. “Nope. Don’t answer that. It was rhetorical. I am agreeing to this, but only because I’m—”

“Incredibly sexually frustrated? Yes I know,” Mermista finished for her.

“I was _going_ to say, because I’m a woman of my word. I mean _really,_ Mermista,” Adora scolded. “And I really want that honeymoon suite,” she added in an embarrassed mumble.

“Mm hmm, I bet you do,” Mermista said with a smirk. She flipped on a comm from a device on her wrist to what Adora assumed linked her up with hotel staff. “Book room 307 for the next week. Full bar and room service on the house. Send the door code to this comm number. Wait, what’s your comm number?” Mermista demanded, looking up at Adora who gave it to her. “Send it here,” she continued, punching it into the comm, then flipped it off. “There. If you don’t get laid by the end of this week, you are literally fired from this adventure novel.”

Adora blushed furiously and muttered something about “Boundaries, Mermista.”

After joining back up with Sea Hawk, Bow, and Glimmer, they set up a meeting time for the Hunter pilot with Mermista, then headed to the markets of Salineas Station. Adora took pity on the rest of the crew and allowed them to leave the _Lunarium_ to enjoy Salineas before Hunters arrived. Mermista agreed to let Adora know when the Hunters arrived, but assured her that if Hunters tried anything, she would forbid them from coming back to Salineas, as her neutrality truce still stood. Adora doubted even Hunters would be dumb enough to cross Mermista. Despite Salineas Station’s glamourous beauty, it also housed an incredible arsenal of weapons and fighters that would make the entire Rep Force think twice before attacking. Mermista was quite serious about making pirates get along on her station.

Adora passed a little coffee shop and saw Scorpia and Perfuma sharing what looked like a bright pink frozen drink of some kind. They each had a straw in the concoction and were staring lovingly at each other as they drank. Adora grinned and kept looking around the market. She was hoping to find a gift for Catra, but her pirate was notoriously difficult to shop for, as she tended to have a very short attention span. As Adora perused the isle of a little rarities gift shop, she rounded a corner and nearly ran into her lieutenant, Netossa.

“Oh! Hey, Captain,” Netossa said with a smile.

Adora was about to reply when she suddenly saw Netossa was holding the hand of Spinerella, Captain of the _Elberon_. Adora grinned. “Hey, Lieutenant. I didn’t know you two were together! You should have told me when we had that run-in with the _Elberon_.”

“Oh. . . that’s um. . . when we met, actually,” Netossa said. “We’ve been dating since then.”

“So much romance in the air on Salineas,” Adora sighed happily. “It’s good to see you again, Captain Ella. You’re welcome aboard the _Lunarium_ any time.”

“Thank you,” Spinerella replied with a smile.

“So who are you gift shopping for, Captain?” Netossa asked.

“Who me? Pfft I’m not shopping for anyone. Just looking around.”

“Wow, your captain is really a terrible liar,” Spinerella laughed.

“Oh, you don’t even know. She thinks no one knows that she’s in love with that mysterious C.I. of hers,” Netossa said with a sly grin.

Adora’s mouth opened and shut several times as she tried to come up with some kind of response. Her brain failed her so she instead blushed furiously and said, “Okay, I’m leaving before this conversation gets someone court-marshalled.”

She heard the two of them giggling as she strategically fled that gift shop in search of one further away. Along the way she saw Bow and Glimmer had also found a romantic spot to hang out at a bar with a very nautical theme. They were feeding each other appetizers and being annoyingly cute. Adora felt herself growing jealous of all the couples who could so openly show affection. Yet again she wondered if that could be her with Catra if she hadn’t left. A few levels down and a whole lot of stores later, she had almost given up searching for a gift at all.

And then she saw the perfect gift sitting in the window of a small boutique. She went straight in and bought it without hesitation. She had just finished securing it in a small gift box when she suddenly felt a pair of arms wrap around her waist from behind. Her heartrate spiked and she almost when into self-defense-kick-some-serious-ass mode, when she felt a very warm, very familiar vibration against her back.

“Hey, Adora,” Catra purred.

Adora’s heart sped up for entirely different reasons and a wave of happiness washed over her.

“Catra!” She turned in the pirate’s arms and held her in an embrace that was far too short. They pulled back and looked each over, surprise on both their faces.

“That’s. . . a surprisingly cool outfit,” Catra said, looking over Adora’s undercover pirate outfit. “Certainly an upgrade from whatever you were wearing before.”

“Don’t look so bad yourself,” Adora grinned. Catra was wearing a black, form-fitting sleeveless shirt with a pair of black slacks that had a gold stripe running all the way along the sides. Without really realizing it, Adora’s fingers laced with Catra’s and she began pulling Catra towards a large food pavilion nearby.

“Remember the smoothies we used to get here? They were so good I swear they were magical. Let’s get one!” Adora said happily.

She felt Catra’s hand tighten in hers and she gave Adora a soft kiss on the cheek. “I do remember. And okay. That sounds fun.”

A bit later they sat across from each other at a small table, two straws sticking out of a large, rainbow colored smoothie between them. It started out sweet and romantic, but it quickly dissolved into a competition to see who would break from brain-freeze first. They were having such a hard time not giggling that they eventually broke at the same time for fear of spraying smoothie all over each other.

“I’m definitely one hundred percent sure you broke first,” Adora declared, trying hard (and failing) to not grin like an idiot.

“What?! I did _not_!” Catra exclaimed indignantly, her tail swishing wildly behind her. Her ears flattened which only made her look more adorable.

Ultimately, they ended up in a staring contest that also dissolved into a fit of giggles. This went on for quite some time before they settled into a pleasant, grinning silence. Adora used the lag in conversation to segue.

“Want to see the lake from a really amazing spot?” Adora asked, hoping she didn’t sound too hopeful. Or desperate. Or suddenly a bundle of nerves.

“All right,” Catra said with a soft smile.

Adora held out her hand which Catra accepted and their fingers laced together again as Adora led Catra to the nearest lift. Once the lift doors shut, Adora suddenly found herself pinned up against the wall and Catra was attacking her lips with her own. Adora let out a strangled squeak of surprise that quickly turned into a groan of delight. She was glad there was no one else in the lift, because she wasn’t entirely sure that would have stopped Catra. A few moments later, Adora was a whimpering mess because Catra’s hands were sliding up her, teasing the sides of her breasts and that tongue, holy _fuck_ that tongue was relentless. Adora’s heartrate revved up even more when Catra slid her leg between Adora’s thighs and pressed up to where Adora was already experiencing unimaginable blazing heat.

When the lift door opened, Catra sauntered out with a swagger so smug Adora should have been furious if she weren’t so entirely wrecked. It took several seconds for Adora to collect herself. She was panting and quite certain she was at least twenty shades of scarlet.

“You cheat,” Adora pouted, her legs wobbly as she stepped out of the elevator.

“No, I win,” Catra corrected with an even more smug smile.

Adora rolled her eyes, but really she just loved Catra even more, who was she kidding? She went a few more doors down the hall and stopped in front of room 307. She punched in the security code into the computer interface on the door, half expecting it not to work because Mermista was just cruel like that, but to her pleasant surprise, it worked and the door clicked open.

Adora stepped inside then turned and held out a hand to Catra. “Come in with me?” she asked, hoping beyond all hope that Catra understood exactly what it was she was asking.

Catra’s mismatched eyes glanced behind Adora to the direction of where Adora knew the bed to be, then settled back on Adora. Her eyes widened, but then a softness entered them, a tenderness that made Adora’s insides melt into a happy puddle of sheer bliss. Catra reached out a hand and their fingers laced together as naturally as though they were created with the intention of being held by each other’s.

A sly grin that somehow also managed to be incredibly tender snuck into Catra’s lips. She didn't say anything as she stepped into the room with her, but somehow Adora got the feeling that smile was saying, "Of course I will, dummy."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heee heeeee am I evil? Yes. Do I love it when Catra trounces Adora? Absofuckinglutely. Can anyone guess what comes next? *evil grin* Also side note, I freaking love Mermista so much. X3 X3


	11. Forbidden

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should probably make a note here. This is AU (as you've noticed lol), and as such I decided to say Catra is more in the tiger family (hence the stripes) and doesn't fear, and in fact enjoys water. Mainly because I love a good make-out in a hot tub scene. X3 I mean Adora got to soak in a hot springs with Glimmer, but never gets to with Catra?? The injustice! X3 Anyhoot, that's just my head cannon, it's okay if it's not your head cannon, it's just a personal preference of mine. Also should I even bother about adding a warning about smut? This chapter is smut. X3

Adora led Catra into the biggest, most opulent hotel room Catra had ever laid eyes on. In one section to the right was a huge fountain that took up half the wall which had seven pools of different levels all cascaded down into one large pool at the base. Steam rose lazily from the water, making it look like some tropical hot springs, and Catra found herself wanting to jump into it. Like all space vessels, Salineas was cold and the steam looked quite enticing.

A hallway to the right of the fountain/hot tub/hot springs led to what looked like a massive bathroom, and to their left, a four-poster bed covered in ocean themed blankets and sea-green satin sheets. Behind the bed rested a gigantic fish tank with a cornucopia of tropical fish of varying sizes, shapes, and colors, and it offered amazing mood lighting for the bed. The far wasn’t a wall at all but a massive window that overlooked the famous Lake Salineas—the largest artificial lake in the known universe. A fully stocked, fancy glass bar rested off to the left in front of the window, as well as a luxurious looking lounging area. The view was breathtaking. The view with Adora standing at the forefront of it, gazing at Catra with eyes filled with so much love it hurt, was soul shattering.

Catra realized two things in that moment. One, absence apparently did make the heart grow fonder. Catra had spent five years thinking she hated Adora, yet upon two seconds of reflection, she spent that entire time pining like a lovesick kitten. And two, she knew she would never let Adora go again. If Adora tried to do something ridiculous like run away if Catra said something stupid, she would make damn sure to chase after her. She understood now that all that time she had wished Adora would have come back, she should have been chasing after Adora. She knew what it was like to be without Adora now, and she couldn’t do that again. Not again.

As Catra gazed in wonder at the scene in front of her, Adora withdrew a small gift box and beckoned Catra to her. She stepped up in front of Adora next to the large window and accepted that which was being offered.

When she looked inside, she couldn’t contain the small gasp that the contents elicited. For inside rested what Etherians, and most planets outside Etherian space, considered it the universal symbol of love. This particular piece was on a chain to be worn as a necklace, and the pendant was somewhat in the shape of a heart, but with jagged edges almost like a circuit board. As the legend went, it was the physical manifestation of love in coded form, discovered by or created by the First Ones long ago. Catra couldn’t find words, but for once Adora found them, and she wasn’t her usual flustered or flushed. She was calm, her face overflowing with tenderness.

“I love you, Catra. I’m _in love_ with you. I know now I always have.”

Catra was not prepared for this. She longed for it, yearned for it, desperately desired it for as long as she could remember being alive. But prepared? This was no small confession, either. This symbol was never used lightly or in jest, not even by pirates (even such rebels as Hunters). It was respected and taken very seriously and Catra felt something inside herself break. A wall that’s she’d so carefully constructed around her love of Adora, a prison in which she stored it to stop herself from feeling the pain of losing Adora shattered. She fell forward into Adora’s arms and buried her face in Adora’s chest, trying her best to silence the sobs she was currently choking on.

“C-Catra? Are you okay? Should I have not. . . was it too much too soon?” Adora asked, her voice filled with concern.

Catra’s fingers tightened on the lapels of Adora’s pirate jacket. “Do you know how _long_ I’ve waited and _wanted_ to hear that? Tell me this is happening, Adora. T-tell me, because I can’t take this if it’s just another dream. I can’t wake up without you again, I can’t, I just mmf—!”

Catra’s growing panic was silenced all at once when Adora pressed her lips against hers in a kiss both passionate and restrained. It was just what she needed to feel grounded and she took in the moment, let it wash over her and reassure her that it was real. Tears were still streaming down her cheeks as she wrapped her arms around Adora’s neck, her tail wrapping around Adora’s waist of its own accord.

“Say it again,” she whispered around Adora’s lips.

“I love you, Catra. I love you, I love you, I’m _in love_ with you,” Adora repeated over and over until Catra began to feel convinced this was real, that it was actually happening. After a time, Adora pushed Catra gently back and pulled the necklace from the gift box, setting the box aside. She then slipped her hands up behind Catra’s neck to attach the ends, and the necklace settled over Catra’s heart. And then Adora did an Adora thing that cemented the fact that, indeed, this was reality. A small yet still managed to be ridiculously goofy grin worked its way into her lips.

“You dream about me?” she teased, but gently.

Catra exhaled a small laugh of loving exasperation. “Why do you think I said fucking ‘call me’ when we met up again like the sorry sap I am? I’ve _always_ loved you, Adora. I never forgive anyone for anything, but you came back into my life and all it took was seeing those fucking beautiful eyes again and all that rage just . . . Gone. Fuck, it _frightens_ me how much I love you. Don’t you get it? I’m terrified I love you so much. I love you, Adora. My Rep Captain. _My_ Adora.”

If Adora’s entire countenance could be radiating pride and tenderness and love through that smile, it was. “You love me too?” she asked, that insufferably goofy grin widening.

“Oh Adora,” Catra exhaled another small laugh of exasperation. “Yes, you loveable idiot. Now let me deal with all these emotions in that hot tub because it looks amazing.”

She clasped Adora’s hand and dragged her to the steaming hot tub. When they reached the edge, she pulled Adora in for another kiss, allowing it to linger and slowly deepen. When she pulled back, both of them were lightly flushed and she was pleased to see Adora’s eyes had darkened several shades already. She then began gently tugging at Adora’s jacket and shirt, urging her captain to remove them. Layers of clothes fell to the floor along with long-held walls and boundaries between them. When there was nothing left, Catra stepped back to take in all of Adora’s beautiful naked body. She’d never seen Adora like this, blushing softly but not hiding, anticipation and arousal mixed into an array of emotions in her eyes. Seeing Adora’s look of blatant approval while her eyes raked over Catra’s body did much to make Catra feel confident in herself. She stepped back in the hot water and beckoned Adora to follow.

The water felt amazing, just deep enough to come up to her ribcage when she stood in the center, and they laced their fingers together, eyes locked. They stood only a breath apart, both pausing to take in the moment of what they were about to do, the threshold they were about to cross. Catra felt a profound gratitude for Adora that she was being given this moment, that Adora hadn’t charged blindly ahead (like she was oft prone to do). A deep purr worked its way through her and the moment ended, traded in for another moment more beautiful than the last. Their bodies came together in a kiss that carried with it all the desire and passion and longing for what was about to come. Both of them groaned softly into the kiss when their naked breasts touched for the first time. Catra pressed her entire body against Adora’s and her fingers removed Adora’s omnipresent hair tie so she could entangle her fingers in her Rep Captain’s hair.

Everything was tender and soft and exploratory at first. Despite years of longing for this, Catra wasn’t about to rush through it. No. She was going to savor all of Adora, and if that meant taking all night, all week? So be it. Time lost all meaning as they stood in the steaming water, their lips parting and meeting again in a series of impossibly soft kisses that had Catra melting into the water. She pushed Adora back onto the seat in the hot tub, their lips still fused in a kiss she refused to surrender as she climbed onto Adora’s lap, straddling her thighs. It was here that she at last deepened their kiss, and soon their tongues were entangled in a kiss with far less innocent intentions than before.

Adora’s hands roamed up Catra’s back and down to her hips, breaking away from their kiss only so she could sprinkle a series of kisses along Catra’s neck and shoulder and _fuck_ if this kept up it was going to get out of control fast. As much as Catra liked the idea of making love in a romantic spa, she wanted their first time to be in a bed, because she had no intention of stopping until they were both unconscious. This was a difficult decision to make, considering Adora’s tongue was in her mouth again and damn it that lower lip was so fun to suck on. . .

With no small amount self-control, she pulled away from another acutely heated kiss and Adora whined softly in protest. “Catra, what—?”

“Bed,” was all Catra managed to answer, her voice sounding far huskier than she intended. She might have been embarrassed if she weren’t so fucking aroused.

They both stumbled out of the hot tub, grabbing the thick green towels folded up by the pool and clumsily drying off on their short trip to the bed. Upon reaching it, the towels fell to the floor, instantly forgotten, and Catra pushed Adora back onto the bed, tackling her as soon as her body made contact with the mattress. They climbed to the top, fumbling with pillows and blankets until they were both settled beneath into warmth of the bed. Adora dimmed the lights from the bedside computer display to a low romantic glow and pressed a button that drew the sheer blue curtains around the four-poster bed.

Though Adora seemed to have some restraint or hesitation before, it was gone now, replaced with a certainty and confidence that Catra was secretly grateful for. Though she’d never admit it to _anyone_ , she needed Adora to _show_ her how she felt.

Adora rolled Catra beneath her and once again their lips fused in a kiss that instantly had their tongues clashing again. The kiss had them both panting and flushed within moments, and Catra nearly whined when Adora tore away, only to groan when Adora kissed and nipped her way down Catra’s neck and chest. As her lips dipped down past Catra’s heart near the soft curve of Catra’s breasts, Adora paused, leaving Catra humming with anticipation.

“Is this okay?” Adora asked barely above a whisper, yet filled with love and concern that was very unnecessary but Catra appreciated it all the same. She rewarded her captain by arching her back to bring her breast to Adora’s lips, and it was all the reassurance Adora needed. Catra was glad, because she wasn’t sure she could form words at the moment.

Adora’s lips and tongue proved to be merciless as they teased and kissed and suckled her breasts until every part of Catra felt like it was on fire. She squirmed and writhed beneath her captain, yet never so happy to be so damn helpless in her entire life. Eventually Adora’s teasing was causing too much need to handle in any dignified kind of fashion. Catra drove her hips up into the leg which had cleverly settled between hers, leaving behind a trail of evidence of her arousal on Adora’s upper thigh. Adora groaned softly in response, giving Catra the not-so-subtle impression that she had very much enjoyed it. Adora repositioned slightly, offering Catra easier purchase to do it again. Catra hooked a leg around Adora’s waist and did so happily, though she wasn’t sure the stimulation offered any relief. If anything it only served to make everything burn hotter, including Adora’s lips which were currently latched onto her neck in an unexpectedly firm, but sexy as _fuck_ bite.

“Adora. . .” Catra growled, realizing if Adora didn’t do something to alleviate her arousal soon, she was going to take matters into her own hands.

And then Adora’s fingers were suddenly touching her _there_ and where had they come from? and oh _fuck . . ._ A cry of uncontrolled pleasure tore from Catra’s throat, partially from sheer relief, but also from amazement that she was being touched like this. From Rep Force Captain Adora. And _fuck_ those fingers were clever and relentless and Catra’s head was positively swimming. She could tell she was flushed and the way she was writhing beneath Adora must have betrayed how vulnerable she felt, because her lover placed another grounding bite on her neck.

It all proved too much. Catra came undone. Her whole body tensed and she froze as everything was just too perfect, the pressure, the speed, the. . . oh fuck just _everything_. She arched off the bed, and cried out Adora’s name to the ceiling as pure ecstasy claimed her. She clung to Adora, fingertips raking down Adora’s back as she rode wave after wave of pleasure like she’d never known. She had experimented with self-pleasure before, of course, but this. . . this wasn’t from the same fucking universe.

“Adora. . .” she exhaled her lover’s name again as her body trembled with aftershocks, and Adora held her hand firmly in place, carrying Catra through each wave of pleasure until she at last relaxed back into the bed, breathless and spent. She felt wrecked. Absolutely and completely _wrecked_. Unmade. She knew there was no coming back from this. There was no anger or rage inside her that could save her from _this_.

“Hey,” Adora whispered, seeming to sense Catra’s spiraling. She sprinkled tender kisses along Catra’s jawline and cheek. “I’m here, Catra. I’m here and I’m not going anywhere. I love you, Catra. I love you. I love you.” Adora emphasized each “I love you” with a soft kiss until Catra relaxed beneath her. Catra nuzzled her face into Adora’s neck and began purring again. Adora lifted her head and gazed at Catra with both profound love and concern. “Was this too soon? Are you. . . if I’ve—”

Catra cut her off with a gentle kiss to her lips. “We’ve already lost enough time, haven’t we, Adora? It wasn’t too soon.”

“Oh thank _gods_. How long have you wanted this? Because I’ve wanted since I was—”

“Twelve?” Catra answered and Adora’s eyes widened in surprise. Catra giggled. “My race goes through sexual puberty before humans. I remember very clearly wondering what sex would be like with you at twelve.”

Adora had the grace to blush, but she looked quite smug about that answer. “Do you suppose we would have been a couple of messes? Trying to deal with all our teenage emotions and throwing sex into the mix?”

“Oh definitely,” Catra grinned. “But if you need reassurance that I’m ready, the answer is yes. Khor told me you asked him to look out for me before you left. That’s when I knew I was ready.”

Adora’s eyes widened for a moment then she looked away with a soft blush. “He really is the _worst_ at keeping secrets.”

Catra trailed the backs of her fingers along Adora’s cheek then down her jawline, enjoying the feel of her warm, naked body against her own. “You’re worried.” It wasn’t a question.

“I just. . . I just don’t want to mess this up,” Adora said, trailing her fingers along the pendant hanging from Catra’s neck. “When I saw you again on the _Elberon_ I knew. I knew before then, too. Not a day went by after I left that I didn’t think of you and regret leaving. All I’ve known for five years is regret. You’re it for me, Catra. There is no one else in this universe for me but you. You’re all I’ve ever wanted, you always will be.”

There were those damn emotions again. There was definitely no coming back from this. She could feel herself opening up to Adora, could feel her heart taking in all of her. It was terrifying and vulnerable and it was a very Adora thing of Catra to do but _damnit_ it felt so amazing she lost the will to care.

Catra surged forward and pressed their lips together again, using the forward momentum to roll on top of Adora. Without hesitation she plunged her tongue into Adora’s mouth, feeling a wave of smugness when Adora groaned softly into the kiss.

Adora, as it turned out, was a bundle of tension and nerves and everything Catra did elicited the most delicious sounds. Clearly Adora had been on edge for quite some time and needed release, and Catra had every intention of relieving that need. But not before torturing Adora at least just a _little_. She lavished Adora’s neck, shoulder, and chest with kisses, halting to tease the hardened swell of Adora’s breast with her tongue. Just that simple action caused Adora to arch off the bed with a sharp intake of breath, clutching at the pillows above her head. Catra’s hands slid up Adora’s sides and settled on her breasts and alternated between massaging them gently and mercilessly attacking them with her lips and tongue. And _gods_ Adora’s skin and smell and breasts and dark eyes and kiss-darkened lips were just the sexiest thing Catra had ever experienced. She at last worked her way back up, pausing to nibble the other’s earlobe. She smiled in satisfaction when Adora hissed in a breath of surprise. She didn’t give Adora the chance to get used to that idea, for she had already moved on, latching onto Adora’s neck with a possessive bite. Adora whimpered in response and Catra happily darkened the skin with bruising force. Adora yelped at _that_ and Catra quickly soothed the marking with soft kisses, then took the opportunity to distract Adora by pushing her legs open. Adora’s cheeks flushed a lovely shade of red and froze as Catra’s hand stroked her inner thigh, panting heavily and Catra could hear her lover’s heart pounding in her chest. Catra continued teasing Adora’s inner thigh, working her way up until she was so close that poor Adora was trembling with anticipation and it was the most beautiful thing Catra had ever seen in her life. She brought their lips together for another searing kiss before pulling back so she could look upon Adora when her fingers at last brushed over her swollen arousal, stroking her softly where she so desperately desired for the first time. Adora arched up into the touch, gentle and curious though it was, and Catra’s head fell to Adora’s shoulder with a soft, overwhelmed gasp. She felt dizzy. She was _touching_ Adora. She might have sobbed if a million percent of her attention weren’t otherwise preoccupied with the _reactions_ her touch was causing. Catra started a slow rhythm at first, but soon realized Adora was already so close it wouldn’t take much to push her over the edge. So instead Catra teased her with different rhythms and movements, never _quite_ allowing it to give Adora the stimulation she needed until Adora was a panting, sobbing mess. Catra’s entire being was humming, burning, she was drunk with it, drowning in it.

“Catra, please. . .!” Adora gasped out, her voice raw and husky and with an edge of desperation that bordered somewhere between a growl and a wail.

It was the please that proved to be Catra’s devastating weakness. She never dared imagine she’d ever hear that magical little word from Adora, and now that she had. . . she was wrecked all over again. She couldn’t deny her after that. She couldn’t. She didn’t even try. She at last gave Adora what she so desperately needed, and it didn’t take long. Seconds, really. But when Adora came undone beneath her, when Catra slid a finger inside her so she could feel Adora coming _around_ her, when Adora cried out and arched into Catra, clinging to Catra. . . she felt such a swell of emotion that it threatened to consume her soul. _Fuck_ she was so stupidly in love with Adora it might be humiliating if she weren’t so damn happy about it. And apparently Adora was feeling the same way, for just when Catra thought she was done, Adora seized up again. Her whole body quaked and she was crying out Catra’s name again, and Catra could yet again feel those beautiful slick wet walls fluttering around her fingers.

“Fuck, Adora,” Catra nearly sobbed as Adora clung to her, quivering with aftershocks.

“Don’t. . . mmm! Don’t s-stop,” Adora gasped, her hips rocking into Catra over and over. Catra held her through all of it until Adora at last collapsed back on the bed, her chest heaving. Catra slung a leg over Adora’s hips and wrapped herself around her lover. It didn’t take long before she was purring again. Gods she had missed holding Adora so much. She felt whole again.

When Adora could move again she closed her arms around Catra with a deep, happy sigh. She tangled her fingers in Catra’s hair again, this time massaging her scalp just behind Catra’s ears and it took Catra about two seconds before she was purring even louder and nuzzling deeper into Adora. _Fuck_ that felt good and it was the kind of tingle that spread quickly throughout her spine then to the rest of her body. It wasn’t until it turned into arousal that she suddenly realized what Adora was doing.

Catra pulled back just enough to mock-glare at Adora. “Rep Force Captain Adora, just _what_ do you think you’re doing?”

“Umm . . . round two? Hopefully?” Adora said, plastering an innocent look all over her face.

“All those times you used to do that to me when we were teenagers and you _knew_ what it did to me?”

Adora’s guilty smile didn’t help her case. “I mean I _suspected_ , I wouldn’t say I _knew_ . . .”

Catra’s eyes narrowed as she sized up her opponent. Apparently she had vastly underestimated just how _devious_ Adora could be. She then gracefully lifted herself and slid on top of Adora, straddling her thighs. She wasn’t about to give Adora the upper hand in this little flirting contest. Catra grabbed one of Adora’s hands and planted it between her legs, rewarded with a soft gasp as she rolled her hips forward, well aware Adora could feel how wet Catra was. She leaned down and pressed her lips near Adora’s ear, driving her hips into Adora’s touch again.

“I’m going to make you pay for that, Captain Adora,” Catra purred, still holding Adora’s hand in place between her legs as she claimed her pleasure from Adora.

Adora whimpered in response, a sound that was soon repeated when Catra pushed two of Adora’s fingers inside and didn’t stop pushing until they were buried to the knuckle. Catra then realized her plan backfired as pleasure spiked through her, and her head fell forward on Adora’s shoulder with a soft, “ _Fuck_. . . _!_ ”

Catra quickly regained her composure. She wasn’t about to let this slip out of her control. Yet. Still holding Adora’s hand in place, she sat back up and began riding Adora’s fingers, taking her pleasure just as much as it was being given. It was all so good, _too_ good, the pressure of Adora’s palm against her swollen, burning arousal, the feel of the slide and drag of those beautiful fingers inside her. . . she could have stayed there forever if she weren’t already so close to the edge again. When she looked down at Adora, all her defenses were stripped away by the look on Adora’s face. Her lips were just barely parted from panting softly, and her eyes were roaming over Catra’s naked body with such wonder, such awe that it made Catra feel. . . just _feel_. Everything. Her head fell back and she cried out as pleasure like she’d never known consumed her body. She felt like she was burning and unravelling and it was nearly too much until Adora surged forward off the bed and pulled Catra into an embrace with her free arm, her other hand still planted firmly between Catra’s legs. Although Catra’s plan completely fell apart, as she was currently a whimpering mess, she had no regrets. She just had the most soul-shattering climax of her life, and it had been _Adora_ who gave it to her. She knew now it was real. No dream could have given her this. Adora pulled Catra back down to the bed, carefully freeing her hand to wrap her in her strong arms.

Catra was purring again. She seemed to do that a lot around Adora. She nuzzled once again into her Rep Captain, breathing her in over and over until she was cocooned in all things Adora. As the two of them drifted into a soft doze, Catra exhaled a deep, happy sigh.

“I love you, Adora,” she mumbled, only moments away from sleep claiming her.

“I love you, Catra. My Catra,” Adora murmured back, settling deeper into their embrace. “Mine. My Catra.”

“Mmm. . . I’m going to argue that point in the morning. But for tonight. . . _yours_.”

Though she’d never admit it out loud, she loved the idea of being Adora’s. It filled her with that which she’d never felt and it was heaven. _Belonging._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew! Off to a cold shower. Just wanted to add one last note that in case it wasn't clear (because I wasn't sure how to describe it), the necklace Adora gave Catra was in the shape of the failsafe. Okay I'm done writing notes. Hope you all enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it! ^^


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